The Karchin Lab at the Institute for Computational Medicine, Johns Hopkins University recently released the first of a suite of educational video games developed with outreach support from the National Science Foundation. The BioHazards project “allows students and science enthusiasts to prevent and cure diseases in a virtual, gaming environment. [BioHazards] is focused on the development of animations and sophisticated video games that give users an intuition and understanding of protein evolution, framed in the exciting context of curing and preventing diseases. While the project is specifically tailored to meet the needs of students and teachers, it is hoped the simple and engaging format of the games and animations will also attract science enthusiasts and anyone wishing to gain basic knowledge of common themes in biology and human health. The project launches with module on cancer prevention. In this module, the player takes control of a cells cancer-prevention machinery, and uses these molecules to prevent cancer inside a human cell!”

BioHazards is the first of 3 games in development with ‘Virus’ and ‘Immune System’ slated for release in 2012.