SEATTLE — Researchers at the University of Washington that players of a computer game are making headway in finding a potential treatment for the coronavirus.
It’s a free computer game called FoldIt. Players manipulate protein structures on screen as an incredibly complex 3D puzzle.
The object of the game is to find a structure that would bond with protein spikes on the coronavirus, which would create an anti-viral that effectively disables the virus in the body. The virus causes the respiratory illness COVID-19.
Brian Koepnick, of UW’s Institute for Protein Design, said they’ve now had players working on coronavirus for a little more than a month.
The researchers combed through all the player submissions and came up with 99 possible solutions that will now go to the lab for testing.
“We’ll mix in a test tube the target spike (from coronavirus) and Foldit players’ anti-viral design,” he said. “And testing to see if those stick together. That’s what they were designed to do.”
If they bind – it could lead to the development of an anti-viral drug down the road. Not a vaccine, but something that could be administered to someone already exposed, or to prevent or slow infection in someone who might be exposed in the future.
Foldit has been around for 12 years and was developed with the university’s Center for Game Science. Users solve all sorts of complex protein problems, though most are working on coronavirus since it was introduced, Koepnick said.
In 2014, users worked on Ebola. Today, the Foldit community has really come to bear on the coronavirus, Koepnick said.
“It is heartening to see the community come around this problem” he said. “Community participation has surged since coronavirus, and we see a lot of people are really excited and enthusiastic to try and work on this problem. So that’s been really great to see that people are kind of invigorated by the challenge.”