Scientist in Canada have come up with an amazing new way to carry out genetic studies: They are using a game to crowdsource the process of decoding human DNA.
When companies have small, repetitive tasks that require little to no skill to perform, but can't be accomplished by a machine or computer, they often decided to outsource those tasks to third-world countries in order to have them done as cheaply as possible. But, in the super connected world of today, they have the option to create a way to get people online to do the tasks as part of a larger project. This is called “crowdsourcing”.
The DNA game is called Phylo, and it was set in place by Montreal's McGill University. The game launched on November 29th, and it gets players to sort human genetic code in a format that looks a whole lot like a game of Tetris. The flash game lets users sort random genetic codes or choose DNA patterns that relate to real diseases. Players can even choose the diseases they want to work with.
Using the creativity of the players is key to the project's success. In a recent FastCompany report about the game, the co-founder of the project had this to say about it:
“There are some calculations that the human brain does more efficiently than any computer can, such as recognizing a face […] Recognizing and sorting the patterns in the human genetic code falls in that category. Our new online game enables players to have fun while contributing to genetic research--players can even choose which genetic disease they want to help decode. […] We're hoping that people will enjoy playing the game and that many participants will sign up […] This is an opportunity for people to use their free time to contribute in an extremely important way to medical research."
Phylo already has a Facebook page and the developers are currently working on designing a version of the game that can be ported to Facebook. The game is an interesting experiment in turning video game players into at home researchers. So much so, in fact, that the game developers are intent on making sure that the players are ordinary people rather than academics.
The game is a lot of fun, and it is a great way to make a difference in disease and genetic research while having playing games at the same time. It will be interesting to follow the progress of the game and it just makes me wonder what other task will be accomplished by video game in the future.
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By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
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