Foldit

Finally, online gamers actually do something useful. Scientists gave them a molecular puzzle of an enzyme of an AIDS-like virus that had confused them for over a decade. It only took the nerds three weeks to figure it out. University of Washington scientists presented their puzzle to the gamers in the form of an online game called Foldit...

This is where Foldit comes in.

Developed in 2008 by the University of Washington, it is a fun-for-purpose video game in which gamers, divided into competing groups, compete to unfold chains of amino acids -- the building blocks of proteins -- using a set of online tools.

To the astonishment of the scientists, the gamers produced an accurate model of the enzyme in just three weeks.

A spokesperson for the gamers said, "Our main objective was to be considered for the Nobel Prize for Medicine. After that, we hope to move out of our parents' basement."

http://news.yahoo.com/online-gamers-crack-aids-enzyme-puzzle-175427367.html



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The Berlin Patient

After looking at the picture in Life Magazine of the man dying from AIDS, I came across this article. It is the interesting story of the only known person ever cured of the disease. Timothy Ray Brown, known in the scientific community as the Berlin Patient, had both Leukemia and AIDS. Ironically, it was his Leukemia that ended up saving his life. Well, sort of. To treat his Leukemia, Brown was given a bone marrow stem cell transplant in Berlin in 2007...

Timothy Ray Brown suffered from both leukemia and HIV when he received a bone marrow stem cell transplant in Berlin, Germany in 2007. The transplant came from a man who was immune to HIV, which scientists say about 1 percent of Caucasians are. (According to San Francisco's CBS affiliate, the trait may be passed down from ancestors who became immune to the plague centuries ago.

What happened next has stunned the dozens of scientists who are closely monitoring Brown: His HIV went away.

"He has no replicating virus and he isn't taking any medication. And he will now probably never have any problems with HIV," his doctor Gero Huetter told Reuters. Brown now lives in the Bay Area, and suffers from some mild neurological difficulties after the operation. "It makes me very happy," he says of the incredible cure.

It's pretty cool how science and luck sometimes come together. Hopefully, this same sort of luck will work for other people and other diseases in the future.

First man ‘functionally cured’ of HIV

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Face of death

Sometimes a simple picture can tell more than a story itself. This photo from November, 1990 showed an AIDS sufferer (David Kirby), whose body had wasted away as a result of the disease. More terrifying is the look of anguish captured on the faces of his family members. The image was captured by Therese Frare, who was a Grad student at the time. The HIV virus was discovered by scientists exactly 30 years ago. Activists say this is the photo that brought AIDS home to many Americans...

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Nushawn Williams: Family Man?

Looks like Nushawn Williams went on Extreme Makeover. The one man AIDS epidemic now wants to get out of prison so he's going with the cleancut look. Williams infected at least 13 and as many as 50 young women in the Jamestown area and now wants to be given another chance. His wife, Mrs. Nushawn, says:

"He's not that kind of person. He won't infect anyone else," Nina Williams said after her husband's brief appearance in State Supreme Court in Buffalo.
Portraying him as a family man, the Virginia woman and her husband's mother, Denise Williams, said he is anxious to be set free and join them and his four children.

She saves her best line for last:

"I feel they should let him go. He did his time," Nina Williams said. "We have four children, and I'm infected, but he wasn't the one who did it."

Hahahahaha! Now that's romantic, but I got a better idea. They are so completely full of crap. If Nushawn is let out, he will continue to infect more unsuspecting women. How bout we keep him locked up for another 100 years and then think about it?
HIV predator's sentence done, he aims to be set free : Southern Tier : The Buffalo News

Nushawn Williams:Rastafarian Jew?

Local AIDS spreader Nushawn Willams has completed his sentence. However, state officials want to keep him confined, and who can blame them?

Authorities say he knowingly infected 13 women, including a 13-year-old, in Chautauqua County and possibly as many as 50 women prior to being sent to state prison for four to 12 years in 1998.

Here's how he behaved in prison:
• Tossing urine at another inmate and putting that individual at risk of contracting HIV.
• Expressing a desire to infect more women with HIV upon his release, according to statements he allegedly made to another inmate.
• Arranging to have drugs smuggled into prison that he possessed and used; fighting; participating in gang activity; and possessing weapons.
Because of behavioral problems, he was thrown out of prison programs for treatment of alcohol and drug abuse and for obtaining a general equivalency diploma, according to state documents.

Then, the article gets funny:

In his interview with the psychiatric examiner, Williams said he would control his sexual urges by staying "in church" and living up to Christian values.
When the examiner pointed out to him that in his prison records, he listed his faith as "Jewish," Williams dismissed it as a way to get different types of food in prison. At another point in prison, he claimed to be Rastafarian so that he would not have to cut his hair.

Reminds me of the words of Juan Epstein: "It's not easy being a Puerto Rican Jew."


AIDS predator may stay in custody indefinitely : Southern Tier : The Buffalo News