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Gearbox Entertainment Celebrates Anniversary of Borderlands Science ResearchFRISCO, Texas, May 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Gearbox Entertainment today announced that 2 million Borderlands 3 players contributed to medical research by playing Borderlands Science, an interactive science discovery game (SDG) within the critically and commercially successful looter-shooter action title. Today, we celebrate and look back at the successful first year of Borderlands Science within Borderlands 3, which was created by Gearbox in partnership with Massively Multiplayer Online Science (MMOS) and researchers at McGill University and the Microsetta Initiative. Borderlands Science allows players to map the human gut microbiome to advance vital medical studies while earning in-game rewards. The integration of Borderlands Science into Borderlands 3 has gathered enough scientifically relevant data to rival most longstanding SDGs, and in some areas even surpasses them. To date, Borderlands Science's results are staggering:
"Borderlands players continue to humble and amaze me with their eagerness to explore the alternative game-within-a-game Borderlands Science experience bringing their profound cleverness and incredible energy to the benefit of real-world medical research," said Randy Pitchford, founder of The Gearbox Entertainment Company. 'The enthusiasm around Borderlands Science reaffirms my belief that interactive entertainment offers an exciting positive role to play in addressing major challenges faced by our species." The data collected from Borderlands Science will help researchers map the human gut microbiome and better understand a variety of medical conditions. Last September, Nature Biotechnology, a monthly journal covering the science and business of biotechnology, published an article co-authored by Randy Pitchford about the game's applicability to future research, including around the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 pandemic. "The Borderlands community's participation exceeded our most optimistic forecast," said Jérôme Waldispühl, professor, McGill University. "After only one year, this massive contribution enabled us to analyze up to 84% of our original mapping of microbial DNA. We are now carefully assessing the information gained from each move made by the participants and are looking forward to applying these results to new microbiome studies as soon as possible. If the participation remains at this level, we will be able to build a map of our microbes at much higher resolution than initially anticipated.'' "Today we are celebrating the first anniversary of Borderlands Science, but this story started 6-years-ago when I first met Randy Pitchford and we promised each other we would collaborate on something special," said Atilla Szantner, co-founder and CEO of MMOS. "The enthusiasm of many exceptional people at Gearbox made Borderlands Science come to life. It is the contribution of the devoted Borderlands community that made our project have such resounding success in video game and citizen science history." To learn more about the Borderlands Science project, visit Borderlands Science online or dnapuzzles.org. About Gearbox Entertainment Company About Take-Two Interactive Software About McGill University About MMOS View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gearbox-entertainment-celebrates-anniversary-of-borderlands-science-research-301293496.html SOURCE Gearbox |