VIB-UGent researchers use virtual space explorers to improve disease diagnosis - University of Ghent

VIB-UGent researchers use virtual space explorers to improve disease diagnosis – University of Ghent

Integrated Citizen Science

Most citizen science projects are self-contained. Therefore, finding enough participants is often a challenge. But what if we could reach a really large audience? For example, players of the hugely popular online multiplayer role-playing game (MMORPG)?

This is the idea behind the cooperation between Professor Lennart Martins’ Team (VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology) and NetEase, developers Echoes of Eve, is a mobile space exploration game with millions of players around the world – a number that is difficult to achieve for “traditional” citizen science projects. It is the first time that scientific research of this magnitude has been integrated into a mobile game.

Toon Callens and Tine Claeys in the Martens lab came up with the general concept of real-life data and graphs created by Dr. Martin Danins and Dr. Sander Willems (Dineens Lab, Yugent) is in the game. Hence, the programming efforts of Toon Callens, Natalia Tichshenko, and MMOS, a company that specializes in connecting scientific research with video games, ensured that scientific data could be seamlessly integrated into Echoes of Eve.

Martin Daines: “I myself have been looking at mass spectrometry data for more than fifteen years, but now I will never feel alone again.”

Toon Callens: “It was necessary to create a tool that automatically distributes millions of data points into games that can be played without losing their scientific relevance. Since I love playing games myself, this company perfectly combines my passion for scientific research with gaming.”

Connect the dots

The idea is to present a puzzle to the players. However, this puzzle is based on real mass spectrometry data. Mass spectrometry is a technique that allows researchers to separate and identify particles in a sample based on how heavy they are. In the end, the scientists get a graph with different peaks for each moment the molecule reaches the detector. The combinations of these peaks tell us which molecules are in the sample and how many can be found.

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An important application of this analytical technique is to study differences in protein expression between healthy and sick volunteers, for example to improve our diagnostic tools. But to do that, the millions of measured ions must be matched between dozens of different samples, which is a difficult task.

As humans excel at pattern recognition, players will help align different mass spectrometry graphs by moving and rotating them. Each puzzle is given to several players so that if the majority come up with the same solution, it is the “correct” one. If there is not enough agreement between different players for certain puzzles, then this data will be further analyzed. The Lennart Martens team will then compare the players’ solution with existing best machine learning models that do the same and use player data to train better models.

Lennart Martens: “While machine learning, our expertise, is a great technique for teaching a computer how to automate very complex tasks, the main component is sufficient training data. Without such training data, a machine learning algorithm is essentially useless. And that’s where this new project comes in. Exciting to align with: It will provide a unique and very interesting training data set that we, and by extension our entire community, can make excellent use of for years to come.”

What are the final limits?

This can also increase the general understanding of the mass spectrometry data, as a lot of noise is produced during the measurements in addition to the signal of interest. The interactive nature of MMORPGs and the well-known involvement of gaming communities also give researchers plenty of opportunities to network about their work and generate interest in STEM in general and life science research in particular. Researchers will work on this through educational materials, puzzle challenges, behind-the-scenes videos, etc.

Lennart Martens: “This is just the first step in an ongoing effort to achieve two important and aligned goals: creating new tools that help us see our data in new and exciting ways, and maximizing public outreach for science education and active participation. It is time to take our science out of the ivory tower and put it on Your smartphone! Start playing!”

informations

more informations About the game, which you can download from the App Store or via Google Play.

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