At first, there might not seem to be much of a cross-over between protein folding and, say, running a web server or a database.
The goal: distinguishing different levels of expertise between two candidates who may both claim expertise in an area such as protein folding or mobile apps.
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The choice of purification methods and the source of the drug will determine the nature and amount of contaminants in the final medicine. (Nothing is ever 100% pure.) Moreover, protein folding, various kinds of enzymatic modifications and impurities inevitably introduce variation, sometimes with unexpected results.
In just three weeks this fall, thousands of people playing the free downloadable game helped map the structure of an enzyme that could fight HIV and AIDS. Scientists at the University of Washington created Fold-it to turn research about protein folding into a game, dishing up puzzles made up of spirals and clumps that represent amino acids.
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While scientists gear up to use the Grid, the question remains whether beyond the search for such exotica as Higgs bosons, running vast protein-folding calculations or simulating the weather there is any real need for such massive computing.
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By turning their problem into a game, the scientists have harnessed thousands of human brains without specialist knowledge to work on protein-folding, says Adrien Treuille, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University who helped to develop the program.
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The question is: is there just one folding pathway for a given protein, or are there several?
Something that is beyond the reach of current computers would be to look at folding trajectories for a single protein.
One idea would be to start with a protein in a random configuration, and then to simulate its folding for a short period.
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