Video gamers tasked with helping develop new molecule for controlling CRISPR

A few years ago, a team of researchers at Stanford University launched a video game called Eterna. The game was designed to harness the brain power of thousands of gamers, challenging them to design new chemical sequences of RNA. 

A new follow-up game has just been launched, and this time players are challenged to create a new RNA molecule that can essentially function as an on/off switch for the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing process.

"Great ideas can come from anywhere, so this is also an experiment in the democratization of science," says Stanford's Professor Howard Chang. "A lot of people have hidden talents that they don't even know about. This could be their calling. Maybe there's somebody out there who is a security guard and a fantastic RNA biochemist, and they don't even know it."

The new Eterna challenge asks players to design a unique RNA molecule that can do several things, from being recognized by the CRISPR-associated enzyme to guiding it to a targeted gene. The researchers suspect that this new challenge may be slightly easier than other, more mathematically orientated Eterna challenges, but they are looking for thousands of diverse solutions that could be applied into laboratory outcomes.

This real-life laboratory outcome makes the Eterna game unique as it gives game players the possibility of having their designs actually created and tested in the lab. And anyone can play the game – as long as they have access to the internet and an interest in learning how to play.