(Global Rank: #10 | Global Score: 2847)
An educated redneck cowboy from Dallas, Texas, USA.
When I was in grad school in 1985 in the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics research department of the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center at the State University of New York at Buffalo, my master's thesis was going to be the development of a computer program that predicted the secondary structures of proteins based on their amino acid sequences.
Tertiary structure (i.e. folding) prediction at that time was a pie-in-the-sky fantasy. Imagine my delight, in 2008, to find out that not only are people determining tertiary structures of proteins, but they've made a *game* of it.
I play to win; but I am not always in a serious mood. You can sometimes find me in Veteran chat cuttin' up with my trusty cyber-horse "Trigger". Say howdy if you see us.
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Foldit bragging rights:
I am the proud winner of the only trophy ever presented by Foldit. Read about it at https://fold.it/portal/node/987550 .
Got to represent Foldit players in an interview about Citizen Scientists that was published in Nature magazine. Read about it at https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100804/pdf/466685a.pdf .
Also got to represent Foldit players through interviews for children's science magazine Muse, Volume 17, Number 3, and the University of Washington's alumni magazine Columns, March 2011 issue.
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Licensed Massage Therapist. Also a photographer, videographer, blogger, and webmaster. I have studied health and nutrition for over thirty years. Ask me what you will about the subject.
Retired from Foldit in 2014 after the death of player and beloved friend auntdeen (https://fold.it/portal/user/99169) broke my heart and my spirit. Now I'm back in 2020, to help kick COVID-19 in its viral butt.