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Baker and the University of Washington's Institute for Protein Design led the team to create fold.it, an online puzzle game in which players actually design synthetic proteins. Originally, the game was coded to allow players to help determine the structure of existing proteins, beginning in 2008. In 2019, the project expanded to allow gamers to actually design new proteins that had never before existed.
The game essentially puts the tools in place for gamers to come up with novel proteins, and when "solved," allows scientists to check them.
"The scientists tested 146 proteins designed by Foldit players in the laboratory. 56 were found to be stable," the university said then. "This finding suggested the gamers had produced some realistic proteins. The researchers collected enough data on four of these new molecules to show that the designs adopted their intended structures."
The game (and the work) continue today. Users can take "chains" of amino acids and fold them up into their proper shape. This shape allows the protein to carry out its assigned function. Examples of proteins include insulin and hemoglobin. Foldit has expanded to take on small molecules that aren't protein, such as aspirin.
"If a protein researcher is struggling with a particular problem, they will create a Foldit puzzle for their problem," the Foldit page says. "By playing Foldit puzzles, you help to solve protein research problems."
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Anyone could use an extra charging cable or a power bank to help them when they're having a long, busy day and their smartphone is about to die. Sale events like October Prime Day typically bring some of the best prices of the year to Anker charging gear, and this year has been no different. In the final hours of the sale, we're seeing some of our favorite Anker accessories on sale for record-low (or close to them) prices, including magnetic power banks, charging adapters, docking stations and more. While there's always the chance that these deals come back around in a month for Black Friday, we recommend grabbing what you want now while the deals are available. These are the best Prime Day Anker deals that we found for October Prime Day.
Prime Day deals on Anker magnetic charging gear
Particularly if you have an iPhone with MagSafe support, magnetic accessories can make charging up your phone even easier. On sale this time around are wireless, magnetic power banks and charging stations that can support multiple devices at once.
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