If you ’re used to fighting virtual zombi or flying spaceship on your computer , a new serial of games available onFolditmay sound a little unconventional . The object of theAflatoxin Challengeis to rearrange protein structures and make new enzymes . But its impact on the real man could make it the most crucial game you ’ve ever played : The scientist behind it hope it will lead to a new way to fight one of the most ruthless causes of liver cancer .
AsFast Companyreports , the citizen science task is a coaction between Mars , Inc. and U.C. Davis , the University of Washington , the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa , and Thermo Fisher Scientific . The squad ’s online puzzles , which debuted on Foldit before this calendar month , invite the public to create a new enzyme able of finding and destroying carcinogens known as aflatoxin .
Aflatoxins form when certain fungi grow on crops like corn , nuts , and grains . Developing land often do n’t have the resources to detect it in food , leaving around 4.5 billion hoi polloi vulnerable to it . When masses do eat food with high aflatoxin levels unknowingly , they can reduce liver cancer . Roughly a quarter of all liver cancer cases around the world can be trace back to aflatoxin pic .
The toxin ’s connection to agriculture is why the food giant Mars is so interested in fighting it . By working on a way to stop aflatoxins on a molecular level , the company could prevent its bed cover more expeditiously than they would with less direct methods like planting drought - resistant crop or removing clay sculpture by deal .
The easiest way for scientists to eradicate an aflatoxin before it make real scathe is by micturate an enzyme that does the body of work for them . With the Aflatoxin Challenge , the hope is that by manipulate protein structures , on-line players will do up with an enzyme that attacks aflatoxin at a susceptible share of their molecular structure called a lactone ring . demolish the lactone ring makes aflatoxin much less toxic and essentially dependable to eat .
The University of Washington launched Foldit in 2008 . Since then , the online teaser platform has been used to study a wide range of disease includingAIDSandChikungunya . Everyone is welcome to add to the Foldit ’s unexampled aflatoxin task for the next several weeks or so , after which scientists will synthesize genes base on the most telling upshot to be used in future subject area .
[ h / tFast Company ]
