RAPID: Empowering the Citizen Scientist in the Fight Against Ebolaviruses

通过这一奖项，化学部生命过程化学项目将资助David Baker博士开展一个项目，让Foldit社区参与一项公民科学合作努力，以应对西非正在爆发的埃博拉疫情。Foldit是一个基于游戏的蛋白质设计平台，吸引了大量来自社区的玩家。该项目涉及基于Foldit游戏的科学界、华盛顿大学蛋白质设计研究所（IPD）和华盛顿大学游戏科学中心之间的合作，以改进和定制Foldit设计平台，以获得结合和中和埃博拉糖蛋白的蛋白质。该项目将共同利用计算机科学家和蛋白质设计专家的专业知识，与不断增长的公民科学家社区合作，以高效和快速的方式获得全新的功能蛋白质。拟议的研究将为潜在的抗埃博拉治疗药物的结构和结合模式提供关键的见解；这些抗埃博拉粘合剂的开发对学术界和工业界都极有价值。这项工作还将显著扩大和拓宽专注于发现埃博拉病毒抗病毒疗法的公民科学家群体。除了推进抗埃博拉治疗药物的开发外，该项目还将继续向广大公众宣传埃博拉、其流行病学以及目前为抗击该病毒而进行的研究工作。该项目旨在改善基于Foldit游戏的科学环境，在Foldit社区，华盛顿大学蛋白质设计研究所（IPD）和华盛顿大学游戏科学中心之间进行快速和直接的合作。该项目将利用Foldit难题来促进设计与埃博拉病毒表面糖蛋白结合的新型抗病毒蛋白，并将在合作实验室对这些结合物的体外功效进行实验测试。这些方法包括(a)为埃博拉研究定制Foldit蛋白质设计平台，(b)让Foldit公民科学家社区参与抗埃博拉定向蛋白质设计挑战，(c)改进抗埃博拉Foldit玩家设计，(d)制备合成基因并使用设计的蛋白质制造抗埃博拉蛋白，以及(e)在基于细胞的研究和动物模型中测试制备的优化抗埃博拉蛋白。该项目将利用设计针对埃博拉病毒的新型蛋白质粘合剂的广泛专家知识，并将利用Foldit平台继续向公众宣传项目进展情况，并通过定期更新和反馈工作，更广泛地宣传病毒本身。

With this award, the Chemistry of Life Processes Program in the Chemistry Division is funding Dr. David Baker for a project to engage the Foldit community in a collaborative citizen science effort to address the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Foldit is a game-based protein design platform that engages gamers drawn from the community at large. This project involves collaboration among the Foldit game-based scientific community, The University of Washington's Institute for Protein Design (IPD), and The University of Washington's Center for Game Science, to improve and tailor the Foldit design platform in order to arrive at proteins that bind and neutralize the Ebola glycoprotein. The project will collectively harness the expertise of computer scientists and protein design experts in collaboration with the constantly growing citizen scientist community to arrive at totally novel functional proteins in an efficient and rapid manner. The proposed research will deliver critical insight into the structure and binding modes of potential anti-Ebola therapeutics; development of these anti-Ebola binders will be extremely valuable both for academic and industrial communities. The work will also significantly expand and broaden the citizen scientist community focused on discovering anti-viral therapeutics for Ebola. In addition to advancing development of anti-Ebola therapeutics, this project will continue to educate the public at large about Ebola, its epidemiology and current research efforts underway to combat this virus.This project sets out to improve the Foldit game-based scientific environment in the direction of rapid and direct collaboration among the Foldit community, The University of Washington's Institute for Protein Design (IPD) and The University of Washington's Center for Game Science. The project will use Foldit puzzle challenges to facilitate the design of novel anti-viral proteins that bind to the surface glycoproteins of Ebolaviruses, and will experimentally test these binders for in vitro efficacy in collaborator laboratories. The approaches involve (a) customizing the Foldit protein design platform for Ebola studies, (b) engaging the Foldit citizen scientist community with anti-Ebola directed protein design challenges, (c) refining the anti-Ebola Foldit player designs, (d) preparing synthetic genes and manufacturing anti-Ebola proteins with the designed proteins and (e) testing the optimized anti-Ebola proteins prepared, in cell-based studies and animal models. The project will enlist the knowledge of a broad cadre of experts in the design of novel protein binders targeting Ebola and will utilize the Foldit platform to continually educate the public about project progress and more broadly about the virus itself with regular updates and feedback on the work.