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

CI-EN：协作研究：Foldit 的增强，Foldit 是一个支持计算生物学中通过众包进行知识发现研究的社区基础设施

• 批准号: 1629811
• 负责人: Jens Meiler
• 金额: $ 23.02万
• 依托单位: Vanderbilt University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-08-15 至 2020-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1629811&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CI; EN; Collaborative; Research; Enhancement

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.

这个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是一个在线多人游戏，允许玩家竞争和合作计算折叠和设计蛋白质。自2008年推出以来，它已经拥有超过40万名玩家，并证明了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的玩家为解决计算结构生物学中的两个“圣杯”问题做出了贡献：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，可能使我们更好地了解生命的基础过程，并允许发现在健康，能源，材料和纳米技术中应用的分子。作为解决生物化学中纯计算方法的挑战的一种新方法，科学发现游戏领域最近兴起，通过使用人类解决问题的能力和公众成员的创造力来解决计算生物化学问题。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。作为一个众包计算生物化学的平台，更广泛的社区将从这个基础设施中受益。这个项目旨在增强Foldit游戏的现有基础设施，并允许我们重新构建Foldit以应对计算结构生物学的下一个重大挑战（包括酶和小分子的设计），同时扩大参与的科学家社区，并继续参与和教育公众。该项目将支持云托管和维护的设备和人员需求，从而提高资源的稳健性和协作访问，同时沿着持续的社区外联。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、触摸屏和多点触摸支持，以及用于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--这是一个非竞争性的游戏版本，允许研究人员加载并在自己的结构上工作。教育工作者将能够使用游戏作为教学工具，将生物化学引入课堂，在课堂上，它已经被用于讲座，实验室练习，家庭作业，甚至教科书和MOOC。Foldit已被iGEM的获奖学生团队使用-iGEM是合成生物学学生的首个国际设计竞赛。Foldit网站（http：//fold.it/）为教育工作者和研究人员提供了在线多人游戏和资源。