Hello all,

I was introduced to this collaborative thingamajig, back when Seti was making the headlines.. I'd like to say a decade ago, but I honestly don't know. I'm 24 years old, and as such it only takes me so long before my adolescence kicks in. At least I still have that!

I never truly believed in the usefulness of Seti, even if we did/do discover another life. Sure it's fun and exciting, but I don't think that it's something that'll be of any use to us. And as such, I find Rosetta far more a better use of my time to invest in.

I'm no scientist and I won't pretend to know anything about what I'm looking at while running Rosetta. I work in retail while I study in college and I doubt I'll ever learn the intricacies of important work such as this. And even though I'm a loner by choice, and enjoy being so (because I don't like people in general); I fully appreciate this project.

And so, I beg you, if you can, to put your answer to my questions into laments terms so that I can understand. I'm confident this won't be a problem for this community.

In the current lifetime of this project has there been any successes?
What is the likelihood of any success?
Is this collaborative effort demonstrably beneficial towards the goal of the project? Or is this a practical test, to determine whether this effort can help out at all, towards the desirable outcome?

Finally, am I asking the wrong questions? I fully appreciate that I may be so ill informed on this subject, that I may be appearing a fool.

Cheers very much, and I'm looking forward to any and all replies!

My first instinct would be to say you might be asking the wrong questions, but I was very pleased to see you felt that might be a possibility.

Any field of research is not as black and white as "have there been successes". When this project first started out, they were working only with very small and simple proteins (made of roughly 30 amino acids). Now they have progressed into much more large and complex proteins (with over 100 amino acids).

When challenged to model a protein with an unknown structure during the CASP comparisons of various methods worldwide, Rosetta often creates models that are essentially identical to what is later found to be the correct form. And they consistently provide excellent models for a wide variety of protein types.

Finding accurate models is what leads to curing disease and finding immunizations to prevent infection. It is the first step in a long process needed to show a "success". Researchers are finding more and more that proteins are at the center of much of human disease. So future strides will depend upon a more complete understanding of how proteins work and interact, and having the ability to disable some, and foster others in a living body.

The collaborative effort is definitely beneficial. Some of the discussions here on these boards led to fold.it, which has taken on a life of it's own. And there is no way the Project Team could have explored all of the avenues that they have, and are, without all of the computational resources provided here. It is simply too expensive.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense