Have you ever been playing a game, put down your controller, and thought “I should be doing something more constructive with my time”? Well no need to think that anymore, in fact, you should probably even pick that controller up and work a little harder on your gaming skills, you may be able to find the cure to some horrible disease!

That’s what gamers at Washington University have done, with the help of scientists and a program called Foldit, a game created and developed by Seth Cooper. The game was designed to see if the intuitive mind of a gamer could solve complex problems that scientists have been struggling with by turning the mapping of protein into a competitive game. “We wanted to see if human intuition could succeed where automated methods had failed”, said Firas Khatib of the university’s biochemistry lab.

After testing the gamers capability to solve the puzzles of a number of “almost” solved proteins, Khatib decided to step in with a protein that he had personally tweeked. What protein was that you ask? The Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (M-PMV), a close relative of HIV.
With the findings they are potentially able to develop new or improved drugs to help fight HIV and AIDS.

This is probably the first time the gaming community has helped solve a longstanding scientific problem, but it’s bound to be the beginning of a new innovative way of problem solving, and quite possibly leaps in technological advancement.

[Discover Magazine ]

The world’s first artificial sphincters have been successfully grown and transplanted into mice.  This new technique uses a circular mold in which human muscle cells grow along side nerve gut cells of mice.  The man leading this research is Khalil Bitar of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine.  Bitar is currently doing testing on some larger animals and hopes to begin testing in humans in as little as three to five years.

“Bitar says that the sphincter he has made wouldn’t replace the outer anal sphincter – the one healthy people control voluntarily – but the inner one, which operates involuntarily. Current treatments include reconstruction using muscle from limbs, electrical stimulation of sacral nerves, mechanical replacements and pumps – but Bitar says these are fraught with complications and failures.”

The goal of this research is not only to be able to solve bowel incontinence issues in the elderly or people who have sustained damage to their anal sphincter, but to also be able to make other important sphincters in the body.

[New Scientist]

The world’s first successful face transplant patient has revealed his improved face in Barcelona this week.

Known only as ‘Oscar,’ the patient thanked the hospital and the face-doner’s family for the medical breakthrough that will eventually allow him to regain up to 90% of his facial functions.

Unfortunately, ‘Oscar’ looks nothing Nicholas Cage OR John Travolta. See, kids? Sometimes even movies lie.

[BBC News]

This past Friday North Korea announced a new “Super Drink” that purports to give consumers a longer and healthier life.  The drink is made from 30 different plants and contains 60 different “micro-elements” to allegedly  multiply brain cells, reduce geriatric diseases, protect skin, and reduce the effects of aging.

This is all according to the North Korean Government’s news agency so stay skeptical, but the product does claim no side-effects. Considering it’s basically a bunch of plants thrown in a blender that’s probably true, but don’t be surprised if you start glowing in the dark from either awesome new super powers or radiation poisioning.

Who wants to try it first?

[BBC]

Find the Fiend – Pharmaceutical Edition

Below are descriptions of three medicinal compounds. Two of them are merely the fictional creations of popular artists; one is a prescription drug that actually exists. Can you Find the Fiend?

A This drug is effective in chemically treating near-sightedness, but causes life-threatening allergic reactions in some users.

B In high doses, this substance can decrease the human body’s metabolic rate to a near-death crawl; the military has experimented with smaller doses intended to dull soldiers’ emotional responses.

C This intended anti-depressant has been known to cause yawn-induced orgasms.

Answer after the cut.
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