Play to Cure: Genes in Space is the first mobile phone game that allows anyone to analyse real cancer data every time they play the game on their smartphone or tablet - meaning that thousands of people can to make a vital contribution to understanding the causes of cancer whenever they have a few minutes to spare.
Cancer Research UK is soliciting help from the online gaming community in order to help scientists sift through the increaingly huge volumes of genetic data generated using advanced technologies. Researchers are looking for patterns in the data that could give clues about the genetic mistakes that cause cancer. By enlisting crowdsourcing methods to analyse large amounts of data quickly, any anomalies or trends that are spotted can be investigated further by researchers and could lead to the identification of new cancer gene mutations.
The data used in the game come from gene microarrays of thousands of DNA sequences extracted from 2,000 breast cancer samples. The samples were collected for the METABRIC breast cancer study, led by Professor Carlos Caldas of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. This study has already categorised 10 different types of breast cancer; each with distinct molecular characteristics and different survival rates, which will enable the development of different treatment options.
The research team are now zooming in on these breast cancer samples in more detail to pin down the faults that drive the development of these different disease subtypes. By using the collective analytical powers of thousands of gamers, the data can be examined more accurately than a computer programme, and much faster than the research team would be able to.
A fictional scenario has been developed to make scrutinising the real scientific data fun and appealing to play. Gamers must first trace a path through the genetic data to plot their route through space. Then they embark on a futuristic mission through space, dodging asteroids and other spacecraft on the way, to collect a valuable fictional substance, ‘element alpha’, which can then be traded for points and to move up to different levels of the game.
Each time the game is played a new data set is analysed enabling hundreds of thousands of data sets to be reviewed. Each data set will be analysed at least 50 times to iron out any inconsistencies in the results, which will be relayed back to researchers to continue their investigations into cancer-causing gene mutations.
The game is free to play and is available for android phone systems, iphones and ipads.
Download Play to Cure: Genes in Space from Google Play.
Download Play to Cure: Genes in Space from Apple App Store.
