View source for EteRNA

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>__TOC__</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>EteRNA</h2>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>See also: [[/About EteRNA|An overview of EteRNA]]</em></p>
<p>EteRNA is a collaboration between scientists at  [http://www.cmu.edu/index.shtml Carnegie Mellon University] and  [http://www.stanford.edu/ Stanford University] that crowdsources the  computationally challenging tasks of RNA design and structure  prediction. The EteRNA game consists of [[puzzles]], [[Lab|lab  activities]], [[Player Projects|player projects]], [[Player  Strategies|strategy design]], and  [https://getsatisfaction.com/eternagame community support].</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Puzzles</h2>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>Main Article: [[Puzzles]]</em></p>
<p>Puzzles consist of a [[target structure]] that players attempt to  satisfy by the placement of different [[nucleotide]]s. An additional  degree of difficulty and/or realism is afforded by a variety of  [[restrictions]] placed on player solutions.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Lab</h2>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>Main Article : [[Lab]]</em></p>
<p>The RNA Lab is a section of the game where player-designed RNAs are  synthesized and scored according to their folding accuracy. In lab,  players design sequences to fold into a given target structure. The  EteRNA community then votes on player solutions to determine which are  ultimately synthesized. In each lab, computer-designed RNAs are  synthesized as well. The performance of players frequently surpasses  that of state-of-the-art RNA design algorithms.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Scoring</h2>
<p>Players are awarded points for the successful completion of puzzles  and, eventually, their contributions to [[lab]]. At 10000 points,  players unlock the ability to contribute to lab. At 20000 points,  players unlock the ability to design [[Puzzle Design|their own  puzzles]]. Players can also track their rank in the EteRNA community as  they continue to gain points.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>==Why are we designing things? ==</p>
<p>Basically no one knows how 'best' to make particular [[RNA Structure|shapes]] in [[RNA]] so if you need a particular shape which [[base]]s go where is a puzzle. The Eterna game is a simulation which lets us try to solve the puzzle.  First you learn how the Eterna simulation works (tutorials and simple puzzles) then you try to push the boundaries of the simulation (solving and creating player puzzles) then you go to the labs and try to solve the real world puzzles (still within the Eterna simulation) Then those solutions that are voted most interesting/likely to succeed actually get made in a real world lab and then the results come back to us (the players) and can be interpreted (this is actual real science!) to try and work out for next time which solution is most likely to actually succeed, then feeding back into the player knowledge improving designs and eventually the eterna simulation itself.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>==What are Vienna and Rnassd? ==</p>
<p>They are programs that try to give you an idea of how well your design will work. Rnassd is one simulation program, Vienna is another simulation - if you put your current suggested solution from the Eterna simulation into that simulation you get a second view of how likely it is to work  <em>Note that is <strong>just</strong> a model too - and some ideas outside the models may also be equally likely or unlikely to work).  Just that if it works in all the simulations then it's probably going to work in the real lab some of the time. </em> If you want to check out the vienna program there is a link to a guide for it [[Player-Created_Guides|here]]</p>
<p>==External links==</p>
<ul>
<li>The [http://eternagame.org EteRNA game website]</li>
</ul>