{"id":75236,"date":"2024-12-17T00:21:03","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T05:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=75236"},"modified":"2024-12-17T00:21:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T05:21:03","slug":"video-games-for-the-advancement-of-biomedicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/video-games-for-the-advancement-of-biomedicine\/","title":{"rendered":"Video games for the advancement of biomedicine"},"content":{"rendered":"

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What if video games could help scientists research genes and diseases? The\u00a0video game industry has continued to grow<\/a>\u00a0over the past decade. Although many consider them simple entertainment,\u00a0citizen science<\/a>\u00a0has taken it a step further.<\/p>\n

They can dive into genomics, for example, the discipline that has revolutionized medicine since the early 2000s,\u00a0when the human genome was sequenced for the first time<\/a>\u00a0. The production of genetic data has increased exponentially with\u00a0new DNA sequencing technologies<\/a>\u00a0, allowing researchers to unravel unknowns about genetic diseases, the diversity of microorganisms, or the design of new drugs.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0massive production of genetic big data<\/em><\/a>\u00a0has driven the development of all kinds of computer tools capable of\u00a0evaluating millions of DNA sequences<\/a>\u00a0(equivalent to millions of megabytes) in the most efficient way. However, the huge amount of data generated still requires people in charge of comparing the tasks performed by computers.<\/p>\n

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How the interactive video game Foldit works in competition mode. Foldit.<\/p><\/div>\n

What are citizen science video games?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

With\u00a0more than 3.7 billion users worldwide<\/a>\u00a0, video games have become a unique opportunity to engage the general public through mini-games that \u201chide\u201d tasks that are impossible for a single person to complete.<\/p>\n

It all began 16 years ago with\u00a0Foldit<\/em><\/a>\u00a0, an online<\/em>\u00a0computer game\u00a0that consists of predicting protein folding thanks to human creativity and intuition, capable of searching for patterns even without understanding their complexity. Since then, video games have been used to analyze all kinds of scientific data.<\/p>\n

For microbiology lovers, there is\u00a0Colony B<\/em><\/a>\u00a0, a mobile game in which you have to cultivate and identify groups of bacteria. This is just one of the titles developed by McGill University, a pioneer in creating\u00a0games that use scientific data<\/a>\u00a0to help society.<\/p>\n

In the field of neuroscience,\u00a0EyeWire<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is a 3D puzzle where we have to color neurons from real microscopy images that help reconstruct three-dimensional models of the brain.<\/p>\n

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How EyeWire video game works. https:\/\/eyewire.org<\/p><\/div>\n

In Spain, the Centre for Genomic Research (CIG) group launched the pilot project\u00a0Genigma<\/em><\/a>\u00a0in 2022 , a mobile application that aims to discover genetic alterations in cancer cells. To achieve this, its creators fragmented the DNA of healthy and malignant cells into small pieces and converted them into pieces that could be compared visually.<\/p>\n

The microorganisms in your gut<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Now, the famous\u00a0Borderlands 3<\/a><\/em>\u00a0, a first-person shooter video game with role-playing elements developed by Gearbox Software, which has accumulated millions of sales since its launch, has included a citizen science game as part of its story for the first time.<\/p>\n

Borderlands Science<\/a><\/em>\u00a0is a minigame designed to help decipher the evolutionary history of the microorganisms in our gut.<\/p>\n