For more than a decade, researchers have been unable to solve the structure of the retroviral protease of M-PMV, a simian AIDS-causing monkey virus. For each enzyme being studied, there are literally millions of possible combinations to how the bonds between atoms form. Once unlocked, the "correct" chemical key - one that uses the most-efficient configuration with the lowest amount of energy - can lead researchers to a better understanding of an enzyme, and in the case of AIDS researchers studying this particular one, a better means to attack it.

There are computer algorithms that can help in deciphering the structure of these molecules - but despite their processing power, computers still lack the 3-D reasoning skills needed to solve complex enzyme folding puzzles. University of Washington’s Firas Khatib and colleagues decided to try a different approach to cracking the code, and uploaded a virtual model of M-PMV to the 'Foldit' community. Introduced in 2008, "Foldit" is a multiplayer, online game about protein folding, developed as a collaboration between the University of Washington's departments of Computer Science and Engineering and Biochemistry. It took just 10 days for the gamers to produce an accurate model of the enzyme.

"People have spatial reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good at," said Seth Cooper, one of Foldit's creators, and lead designer. "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."

The study was published Sunday in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, and the findings could present a significant breakthrough for AIDS and HIV research.

For a more detailed commentary on the study, check out The Scientist article.

To try your luck at protein folding, check out Foldit for yourself!