Researchers from the University of Washington and some group of online players finally found a potential solution for HIV and other diseases. After numerous and extensive experiments and studies, the group was able to find a possible solution for this killer disease.

Gamers' genes helped in having a closer and clearer look to monomeric protease enzyme.

The main target of the group is to analyze and to know more about a monomeric protease enzyme. This type of enzyme is a cutting agent in the complex molecular tailoring of retroviruses to which HIV belongs.

However, the enzyme will not be fully analyzed when seen in microscope. The enzymes will just look like flat spaghetti strands. Of course, in order to study and create drugs against HIV, the enzymes need to be studied closer and more in-depth.

So the University of Washington team asked a group of online gamers to participate in the experiment. In order to analyze the enzyme more, they use a hi-tech device called Foldit. Unlike other medical devices, Foldit is a fun-with purpose device that can be used to analyze and to see the enzymes clearly. The gamers were divided into two competing teams to unfold the chains of their amino acids using a set of online tools.

"We wanted to see if human intuition could succeed where automated methods had failed," says the university’s biochemist Firas Khatib. "The ingenuity of game players is a formidable force that, if properly directed, can be used to solve a wide range of scientific problems."

The scientists were surprised to see that the gamers produced an accurate enzyme model in just 3 weeks. Cracking the enzyme can provide new insights for antiretroviral drugs, the medication against HIV.

"People have spatial reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good at, … Games provide a framework for bringing together the strengths of computers and humans. The results in this week's paper show that gaming, science and computation can be combined to make advances that were not possible before.” says Seth Cooper, one of the creators of Foldit.

This study is a huge help indeed. With the increasing number of HIV all over the world, medications against this disease will surely help in saving lives.