Updates from the Foldit Team

Started by smortier

smortier Lv 1

Here are some things the Foldit team has been working on lately:

  • bkoep has been purifying proteins in the lab. Below is a picture of crystals of a Foldit player-designed protein. He harvested a few of these yesterday, and will try x-ray diffraction in the next couple of weeks.
    • Protein Crystal
  • scooper has finished with his study of the Foldit touch interface. Results are currently being reviewed.
  • Last month, Lorna presented work at RosettaCON 2017 (see picture below). She is currently working on Foldit Pipeline which will allow for multiple files to be uploaded at the same time to create a contest.
    • RosettaCON 2017
  • Uttkarsh and joshmiller are reworking the tutorial levels. In the coming weeks they'll be restructuring the level ordering and branching, adding new levels, and removing some of the unnecessary HUD elements in the early stages of the tutorial.
  • jflat06 has been working on load testing Foldit servers.
    • UPDATES DISCLAIMER: We want to keep the community apprised of what we are working on, but please note that not everything we spend time on will necessarily come to fruition quickly or even at all. The nature of research is nebulous and often there is no clear answer to a problem. Researchers can work on something for a long time and end up without usable results. Also please keep in mind that we are working on projects that the team has deemed the most appropriate/valuable use of our time and resources based on the information we have at hand. This may not jive with what all players feel is the best for Foldit and while we are certainly willing to listen to your concerns, please understand this may not change our direction. We value, put weight on, and appreciate your feedback nonetheless.

Susume Lv 1

I love hearing updates of what you guys are working on! Looking forward to an ED puzzle of that protein you crystallized soon!

Susume Lv 1

From Horowitz et al 2016: "Foldit players might also be tasked with improving structures of questionable quality already in the PDB. These Foldit puzzles would benefit the entire community of scientists that depend on accurate structural models. Editing of nearly complete structures could form a base of easier Foldit puzzles for new players, allowing players to practice their model-building skills before moving to more difficult de novo model-building puzzles. To further improve the capability for Foldit players to aid crystallographers, ongoing development will make it possible for the players to add or remove residues with insufficient electron density, and have these changes accurately reflected in the Foldit score."

Is this project still being worked on? It sounds so promising!

bkoep Staff Lv 1

Recently our efforts have been focused elsewhere, but we definitely plan to revisit this project!

Incidentally, these types of electron density puzzles require a bit more work to set up than other types of puzzles, which is one of the reasons they are relegated when other projects take priority. Lorna's work on Foldit puzzle creation should eventually help to ease some of this burden.