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February 1, 2012

"Foldit" took first place in the Interactive Games category.

Foldit is a game designed to tackle the problem of protein folding. Proteins are small 'machines' within our bodies that handle practically all functions of living organisms. By knowing more about the 3D structure of proteins (or how they 'fold'), scientists can better understand their function, and get a better idea of how to combat diseases, create vaccines, and even find novel biofuels.

Credit: Seth Cooper, David Baker, Zoran Popovic, Firas Khatib, Jeff Flatten, Kefan Xu, Dun-Yu Hsiao and Riley Adams, University of Washington


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