EteRNASocial Gamification

Prepared By Manu Melwin Joy

Assistant ProfessorSCMS School of Technology and Management

Kerala, India.Phone – 9744551114

Mail – manu_melwinjoy@yahoo.com

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EteRNA

• A game called EteRNA

is being used to

further research into

how RNA folds itself

into particular shapes.

EteRNA• The game is a way of

crowdsourcing the

modeling to free

biomedical scientists to

use the shapes for their

research.

EteRNA• Recently medical

researchers have become

interested in the role that

RNA has in the human

body and the

management of diseases.

EteRNA• RNA molecules start out

as single chains of

subunits that quickly

form into a stable shape.

EteRNA• The shape, determined

by the sequence of the

subunits, controls how

the RNA molecule

interacts with the cells

of the human body.

EteRNA• If medical science were

to acquire a better understanding of these shapes, a whole new host of targeted therapies could be developed that will treat cancer and other diseases.

EteRNA• However the shapes

RNA resolves itself into can be complicated and are governed by rules that are not well understood. Medical researchers do not have the time or the training to create RNA shapes.

EteRNA• Computer modeling has

proven to be inadequate as well. The beauty of EteRNA is that one does not have to have any biological training to play. All one has to have is the ability to solve complex problems, which a lot of gamers have in abundance.

EteRNA• The top designs to come

out of the game have been used at Stanford University to synthesize RNA molecules where they could be evaluated at that institution’s biochemistry lab.

EteRNA• The game has resulted in a

number of scientific papers, the most recent one written by three of the gamers. The paper, published in the Journal of Molecular Biology, discusses how most RNA molecules created in the game are symmetrical.