Phylo: A Tablet Game To Advance Genetic Research

Phylo is the next scientific video game that uses the collective brainpower of video gamers. Its goal is to demystify DNA secrets in the hope to find cures for diseases like epilepsy and support science to better understand Alzheimer's and diabetes.

Recently released as a mobile app aimed specifically at tablet users, the game targets casual gamers with the task to arrange colored blocks that represent sequences of human DNA. Similarities in those sequences could potentially provide new insight into certain diseases. Since the launch of the game in November 2010, it has attracted more than 17,000 registered users, who delivered more than 350,000 solutions to "sequence alignment problems."

"Phylo has contributed to improving our understanding of the regulation of 521 genes involved in a variety of diseases," said Jérôme Waldispuhl of the McGill School of Computer Science. "It also confirms that difficult computational problems can be embedded in a casual game that can easily be played by people without any scientific training." According to the scientist, the game highlights "a synergy of humans and machines that helps to solve one of the most fundamental biological problems."

Waldispuhl said that the human factor in genome analysis enables the research team to achieve "accuracy" in a mountain of messy data. While sequences have already been pre-aligned by computers, humans are required solve the problem of sequences that are still misaligned. "Our goal is to identify these parts and transform the task of aligning them into a puzzle people will want to sort out,” Waldispuhl explained.

Give it a try here: Phylo is available as a desktop and mobile version.