Results obtained by gamers playing Foldit have also helped scientists in Alzheimer's and cancer research.

BBC: Online game Foldit helps anti-Aids drug quest

About a year ago, they converted it into a Math problem and put it into a game called Foldit.

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Foldit, an online video game, allows nontechnical, nonbiologist players to visually "fold" protein structures, while computers calculate the chemical interactions corresponding to each arrangement.

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Seth Cooper, a co-creator of Foldit and its lead designer, said that games provide a framework "for bringing together the strengths of computers and humans".

BBC: Online game Foldit helps anti-Aids drug quest

It was not until researchers at the University of Washington proposed converting the research model into Foldit, a Halo-like game that uses 3D visual icons.

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Khatib decided to share a longstanding problem in AIDS research in the form of Foldit, a program that reframes scientific challenges as a competitive multiplayer computer game.

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In 2011, Foldit players needed only 10 days to produce an accurate 3-D model of the Mason-Pfizer monkey virus, a protease whose structure had stumped scientists for 15 years.

CNN: People and computers need each other