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Foldit Player May Have Created a Useful Protein

Posted by kdawson on from the know-when-to-hold-'em dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The organizers of the game Foldit, where you fold proteins for scientific research, announced that a user has found a protein that may be able to bind influenza viruses. Researchers plan to test the protein in a lab over the next few weeks to see if it might be medically useful."

4 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And who gets the patent for it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hint: Not the player.

  2. Re:And who gets the patent for it? by glwtta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And who gets the patent(s), money etc. for this particular protein?

    I guess it's whoever spends the hundreds of millions of dollars to follow up on the infinitesimal chance that this will lead to something useful?

    --
    sic transit gloria mundi
  3. Re:*sigh* by Garble+Snarky · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So... you're saying the work of studying proteins for years, coming up with the game idea, creating and distributing the software, is all nothing, in comparison to the guy who downloaded a program and clicked some buttons? I think the notion of "discovery" is pretty fuzzy in a lot of cases, but you're crazy if you think the player deserves MORE credit than the software authors here.

  4. Re:*sigh* by sFurbo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Or the people who synthesize the protein, test that it folds the right way, test it in vitro, test it in animals, perform phase 0, 1, 2 and 3 human trials. You know, the actually finding out if it can be used as a drug. Coming up with a drug candidate is the easy and cheap part of making a new drug.