The ultimate web protein docking game
BioBlox3D is a free online serious game about proteins docking, solve all the levels and share your score!
Bioblox3D
Predict how two proteins of a known 3D structure will dock together.
The motivation for BioBlox is that humans have proved able to outperform computer algorithms in several areas involving spatial reasoning. We, therefore, developed a web-based game where the player is presented with two protein structures, can select putative inter-protein atom/atom contacts and generate a docked complex whose quality is scored using established potentials. The game has been released and we are currently enhancing its features to establish a crowd-sourced approach for docking appropriate to take part in the international evaluation.
Our Team
The BioBlox group consists of two teams, one based @ the Dept. of Life Sciences @ Imperial College London and one based @ the Dept. of Computing @ Goldsmiths College, also in London, UK.
Project
We address the docking of molecules onto a given target molecule (typically a protein). Such a molecular target offers a complex 3D form with many pockets, holes and textured regions — imagine a moon-like surface wrapped around a 3D folded ribbon—on its bounding surface where other (usually much smaller) molecules can come by and bind to. The process is dynamic in that each such molecule has a bounding form which slightly deforms upon interactions and under the constant bombardment of tiny water molecules (in vivo simulation). This problem is key to the understanding of all cellular processes and in particular to the practical application of drug design.
Crowd sourcing of complex scientific problem is still in its infancy, but is gaining grounds and approval by the scientific communities. Early examples include SETI@home (search for extra terrestrial life) and GalaxyZoo (classification of galaxies). More recent and directly relevant projects are FoldIt and EteRNA: on-line scientific puzzle-solving games about folding proteins and RNA.
The BioBlox project is supported by the BBSRC 