Fold It

1 PROJECT

Url:http://fold.it/portal/
Start date: 2008/05/08
End date: Still open

2 TEAM

Official team page:http://fold.it/portal/info/credits
Leader: David Baker
Institution: University of Washington's Center for Game Science
Partner institutions: UW Department of Biochemistry, UW Center for Game Science, UW Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Contact: http://fold.it/portal/feedback or https://twitter.com/foldit
Main location: University of Washington

3 PROJECT DEFINITION

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3.1 Subject

Natural sciences > Biochemistry (biology/medicine/neuroscience)

3.2 Description

Fold It is a computer game enabling volonteers to contribute to biochemistry research by resolving proteins puzzles. The game is part of an experimental research project, and is developed by the University of Washington's Center for Game Science in collaboration with the UW Department of Biochemistry.

3.3 Purpose.

Identify the structural configuration of natural proteins to study and understand proteins better.

3.4 Research question.

"As described above, knowing the structure of a protein is key to understanding how it works and to targeting it with drugs. A small protein can consist of 100 amino acids, while some human proteins can be huge (1000 amino acids). The number of different ways even a small protein can fold is astronomical because there are so many degrees of freedom." from official project website

4 ABOUT PARTICIPANT TASKS

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4.1 .

4.2 .

Grey typology	Participation typology	Contribution type:
Computing: NO Thinking: NO Sensing: NO Gaming: YES	Crowdsourcing ☐ Distributed intelligence ☑ Participatory science ☐ Extreme citizen science ☐ Science outreach ☐	Data collection ☐ Data analysis ☑ Data interpretation ☐--------
Gaming
Genre: puzzle	Gaming elements: achievements, score boards, challenges
Interface
Data type to manipulate: 3D manipulation	interface enjoyment: somewhat cool/attractive Interface usability:	Member profiles::minimal Member profile elements: photo, personal interests, badges, activity metrics, other

5 ABOUT GUIDANCE AND FEEDBACK

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Guidance	Feedback on
Tutorial and documentation: YES Training sequence: SOMEWHAT Peer to peer guidance: YES	individual performance: YES collective performance: YES research progress: Somewhat

5.1 .

6 COMMUNITY

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Tools	News & Events
Communication: website, blog, forum, wiki, other Social Network: Twitter, Facebook	Main news site: http://fold.it/portal/blog Frequency of project news updates: weekly Type of events: other Frequency of events : 5
Community description
Community size (volounteers based): 6398 Role: Interaction form:Blog Comments and Twitter Has official community manager(s): maybe Has team work yes

Other information about community: Forum fairly active.
Community led additions:

7 OTHER PROJECT INFORMATION

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Foldit main.png Yes [[has completion level::Medium]

http://fold.it/portal/info/credits Not explicitely listed University of Washington http://fold.it/portal/feedback or https://twitter.com/foldit 2008/12/12 Yes Biochemistry Natural sciences biology/medicine/neuroscience Identify the structural configuration of natural proteins to study and understand proteins better. "As described above, knowing the structure of a protein is key to understanding how it works and to targeting it with drugs. A small protein can consist of 100 amino acids, while some human proteins can be huge (1000 amino acids). The number of different ways even a small protein can fold is astronomical because there are so many degrees of freedom." from official project website International Fold It

data analysis

distributed intelligence 3D manipulation, other: Thinking: no Computing: no Sensing: no Gaming: yes achievements, score boards, challenges puzzle

somewhat cool/attractive

yes yes strong yes yes somewhat

minimal photo, personal interests, badges, activity metrics, other maybe website, blog, forum, wiki, other Twitter, Facebook other 5 http://fold.it/portal/blog 6398 weekly Forum fairly active.

Blog Comments and Twitter yes Twitter and mentions in popular science articles

Medium

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BIBLIOGRAPHY