CI-EN: Collaborative Research: Enhancement of Foldit, a Community Infrastructure Supporting Research on Knowledge Discovery Via Crowdsourcing in Computational Biology

该项目的重点是通过众包视频游戏 Foldit 将众包和计算生物化学结合起来。 Foldit 是一款在线多人游戏，允许玩家竞争和协作，通过计算折叠和设计蛋白质。自 2008 年推出以来，它已经拥有超过 400,000 名玩家，并证明通过利用人类解决问题的能力和创造力，人类和计算机可以共同解决计算结构生物学中以前无法解决的问题。 Foldit 玩家为计算结构生物学中的两个“圣杯”问题的解决方案做出了贡献：蛋白质折叠问题和蛋白质设计问题（也称为逆折叠问题）。新型合成蛋白质的设计是蛋白质工程中最重要的工具之一，可能使我们更好地理解生命背后的过程，并发现可应用于健康、能源、材料和纳米技术的分子。作为解决生物化学中纯计算方法挑战的新方法，科学发现游戏领域最近兴起，通过利用人类解决问题的能力和公众的创造力来众包计算生物化学问题的解决方案。该项目支持的基础设施将使众包和公民科学的新研究成为可能。作为众包计算生物化学的平台，更广泛的社区将受益于这一基础设施。该项目旨在增强 Foldit 游戏的现有基础设施，并使我们能够重塑 Foldit 以应对计算结构生物学（包括酶和小分子的设计）的下一个重大挑战，同时扩大参与的科学家社区并继续吸引和教育公众。该项目将支持云托管和维护的设备和人员需求，从而提高稳健性和对资源的协作访问，以及持续的社区外展。此外，还将支持开发用于蛋白质和小分子设计新应用的游戏内工具、科学家的新界面、触摸屏和多点触控支持，以及应对众包生物化学挑战的新管道。游戏客户端的增强功能将通过 Foldit Standalone 提供，Foldit Standalone 是游戏的非竞争版本，允许研究人员加载并处理他们自己的结构。教育工作者将能够使用该游戏作为将生物化学引入课堂的教学工具，该游戏已被用于讲座、实验室练习、家庭作业，甚至在教科书和 MOOC 中。 Foldit 已被 iGEM（合成生物学学生首屈一指的国际设计竞赛）获胜学生团队所使用。 Foldit 网站 (http://fold.it/) 为教育工作者和研究人员提供在线多人游戏和资源。

The focus for this project is the combination of crowdsourcing and computational biochemistry through the crowdsourcing video game Foldit. Foldit is an online multiplayer game that allows players to compete and collaborate to computationally fold and design proteins. Since its launch in 2008, it has had over 400,000 players, and demonstrated that by leveraging human problem solving and creativity, humans and computers can work together to solve previously unsolvable problems in computational structural biology. Foldit players have contributed toward solutions for two of the "holy grail" problems in computational structural biology: the protein folding problem and the protein design problem (also known as the inverse folding problem). The design of novel synthetic proteins is one of the most important tools in protein engineering, possibly leading us to a better understanding of the processes that underlie life and allowing the discovery of molecules with applications in health, energy, materials, and nanotechnology. As a new approach to addressing the challenges of purely computational approaches in biochemistry, the field of scientific discovery games has recently arisen to crowdsource solutions to computational biochemistry problems, by using human problem solving and creativity from members of the general public. The infrastructure supported by this project will enable new research in crowdsourcing and citizen science. The broader community will benefit from this infrastructure as a platform for crowdsourcing computational biochemistry.This project aims to enhance the existing infrastructure of the Foldit game, and allow us to recast Foldit to tackle the next big challenges in computational structural biology (including design of enzymes and small molecules), while broadening the community of scientists involved and continuing to engage and educate the public. This project will support equipment and personnel needs for cloud hosting and maintenance, allowing improved robustness and collaborative access to resources, along with continued community outreach. Additionally, support will be provided for developing in-game tools for new applications in protein and small molecule design, new interfaces for scientists, touchscreen and multi-touch support, and a new pipeline for crowdsourced biochemistry challenges. Enhancements made to the game client will be made available via Foldit Standalone -- a non-competitive version of the game that allows researchers to load in and work on their own structures. Educators will be able to use the game as a teaching tool for introducing biochemistry to classrooms, where it is already being used for lectures, lab exercises, homework assignments, and even in textbooks and MOOCs. Foldit has been used by winning student teams in iGEM -- the premiere international design competition for students in synthetic biology. The Foldit website (http://fold.it/) provides access to the online multiplayer game and resources for educators and researchers.