Citizens seek cancer cure with 'Genes in Space' smartphone game

[Hum]

Gaming enthusiasts across the world can from Tuesday join the search for cancer cures with a citizen science project using a smartphone game to help researchers analyze vast volumes of genetic data from tumor samples.

Called "Play to Cure: Genes in Space", the spaceship game is designed for smartphones and was launched by the charity Cancer Research UK (CRUK), which hopes it will speed up the decoding of data to reveal patterns of the genetic faults that cause cancers to grow and spread.

Travelling in a world set 800 years in the future, players guide a fast-paced spaceship safely through a hazard-strewn intergalactic assault course, gathering along the way a fictional precious cargo called "Element Alpha".

Each time a player steers the ship to follow the Element Alpha path, they also reveal patterns and, unwittingly, provide analysis of variations in the genetic data, explained Hannah Keartland, who led the project for CRUK and unveiled the game at a London launch on Tuesday.

It is this information that will be fed back to CRUK scientists. And to ensure accuracy, each section of gene data will be tracked by several different players.

"We want anyone, anywhere, at any age, to download this game and play it," said Keartland.

If everyone around the world were to play the game for even a couple of minutes each, she said, "we could have an absolutely mind-blowing impact in terms of accelerating research".

An estimated 14 million people worldwide are diagnosed with cancer each year and that toll is expected to rise to 22 million a year within the next 20 years, according to a World Health Organization report issued on Monday.

Scientists will use the information gathered from "Genes in Space" players to work out which genes are faulty in cancer patients. This in turn should help them develop new drugs that target specific genetic faults, and new ways to figure out how to stop cancer developing in the first place.

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[Kriz]

Good idea, ill get it

[Phouchg]

Another mind-blowing (literally) distributed computing idea like Crap@home and Fadcoin, I gather?

[Torolol]

no PC version?

[psionicinversion]

ill pick it up if its on windows phone, sounds like a good idea

Another mind-blowing (literally) distributed computing idea like Crap@home and Fadcoin, I gather?

 

yeah because helping to cure cancer that one day you could get its totally not worth it. Every person in the world has cancer wound into our bodies, youve just got to hope you dont do anything to trigger it or it starts on its own

 

damnit only on apple and android

[Phouchg]

yeah because helping to cure cancer that one day you could get its totally not worth it. Every person in the world has cancer wound into our bodies, youve just got to hope you dont do anything to trigger it or it starts on its own

 

We've been promised too many wonderful break-through cures by charlatans and scientists alike since cancers as a broad family of cell-growth diseases were discovered, and haven't moved but an inch further since then. There won't be any revolution, there is no need to drum up for one.

[123456789A]

Put it on Windows Phone and I'll check it out.

[psionicinversion]

We've been promised too many wonderful break-through cures by charlatans and scientists alike since cancers as a broad family of cell-growth diseases were discovered, and haven't moved but an inch further since then. There won't be any revolution, there is no need to drum up for one.

 

Yeah i suppose but guess its like Tesco... every little bit helps!!! i suppose the main problem with cancer is how do you successfully eradicate something that is genetically part of us, i wonder if its more about finding out the root cause

[Nick H. Supervisor]

Just downloaded it. Going to give it a go on the train back home.

[Phouchg]

Yeah i suppose but guess its like Tesco... every little bit helps!!! i suppose the main problem with cancer is how do you successfully eradicate something that is genetically part of us, i wonder if its more about finding out the root cause

 

Let's see. Today I went through cig smoke filled staircase, down the street wrapped in lingering smoke from gas engines, past houses with asbestos lined rooftops, to the mall filled to the brim with chemically treated crap, finally hiding from UV that the Sun had been generously pouring all over me. Bought some of the less expensive (more processed) stuff, went back, deep fried, a bit too much, perhaps, and then ate it. I bet that just made some of my cells much more willing to go haywire. But I guess none of that is going to change anytime soon. So yeah, let's help pharma cartels find some new black gold.

 

Of course, I'm exaggerating.