Help This Video Game Go Viral

Want to learn about non-random patterns in viral diversity? How about a video game? Better yet, go to LetsPredictViruses.com and do both. Created by Simon Anthony, assistant professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School, with a group of digital artists and storytellers at the Office of Creative Research, the new site puts a playful spin on Anthony’s viral research, combining an interactive narrative and a challenging retro-style puzzle game that casts viruses as Space Invaders.

Over the last few years, Anthony and colleagues at Mailman’s Center for Infection and Immunity have explored the largely hidden world of the ecosystem of viruses in mammal hosts to understand the conditions necessary for viruses to jump from animals to humans and cause disease.

As Anthony knows more than anyone, the world of viruses is huge. His 2013 paper estimated a minimum of 320,000 different virus varieties in mammal hosts. Even a single host can be inhabited by as many as 13 viruses from six different families. In looking at these viral communities, he wondered if there was any logic governing them, or if they were just random groupings.

In September, Anthony published the answer: his study in Nature Communications presents evidence from DNA testing of feces from 458 rhesus macaque monkeys in Bangladesh that viral communities do in fact follow certain rules.

LetsPredictViruses.com explains two of the patterns governing viral communities Anthony uncovered in his recent paper: dependence—when one kind of virus cannot replicate in a host without the presence of a different virus; and exclusion—when the presence of one virus excludes another. The video game challenges visitors to spot these patterns in seven levels of increasing difficulty. Space Invader-style aliens represent a variety of viral families and smiling poo emojis that stand in for, you guessed it, monkey feces. 

Unlocking the logic of viral communities has never been more important given the regularity of spillover events—when animal viruses jump to humans. “Spillovers are happening with growing frequency as human activities like deforestation and farming shrink the habitat of wild animals,” says Anthony.

A Website Is Born

Known for coming up with smart and engaging ways to communicate science to the general public, the Office of Creative Research is responsible for projects including a newsfeed display in the lobby of the New York Times building, and “The 5,000-Mile Salad,” a website for Scientific American that maps the origins of produce consumed in the United States.

Months before his paper came out, Anthony met with the group in their Lower East Side offices to share his findings. “I was interested to see how they would view the data, and what stories or opportunities they saw in our work that we didn’t,” he says. Next they brainstormed ideas, agreeing that an interactive element was needed, something people could play and share with their friends.

“When people come to us with a project, we try to wrap our heads around what the data or research is trying to get across, and do our best to interpret and translate it to a wider audience,” says Genevieve Hoffman, creative lead on the project, along with Noa Younse. “Adding a game element seemed like the natural way to cement some of the abstract concepts we were trying to show, and have a wider appeal.”

“OCR has an interest in finding novel ways to present science,” says Anthony. “We have an interest in reaching as many people as possible.”