September 21, 2011 | Health Matters

Gamers are good for your health

You may want to reconsider your low opinion of online gamers. They recently did something that has stumped scientists for almost 10 years.

A group of dedicated gamers deciphered the structure of an enzyme of an AIDS-like virus. The discovery could lead to more effective treatments for people dealing with HIV.

Until now, the best scientists could achieve was a flat image of the enzyme. However, a three-dimensional model is required by pharmacologists to determine where potential weaknesses or openings exist for drug therapy to target.

A fun-for-purpose game called Foldit, created by the University of Washington in 2008, offered the key. The game pits players against each other, as teams try to unfold chains of amino acids -- the building blocks of proteins -- using a set of online tools.

When the AIDS-like enzyme was introduced to the game, it took players only three weeks to create an accurate 3D model of it.

"We wanted to see if human intuition could succeed where automated methods had failed," Firas Khatib of the university's biochemistry lab said in a press release. "The ingenuity of game players is a formidable force that, if properly directed, can be used to solve a wide range of scientific problems."

"Games provide a framework for bringing together the strengths of computers and humans," added Foldit creator Seth Cooper. "The results in this week's paper show that gaming, science and computation can be combined to make advances that were not possible before."

So next time you see a hardened World of Warcrafter, ignore the pit stains and dried cereal stuck to his T-shirt and give him a big hug!

Online gamers crack AIDS enzyme puzzle [Yahoo!Games]