It seems like the ultimate fulfillment of the Internet's promise:
millions of computers around the globe linked together to solve some of
mankind's most perplexing problems.
Grid computing, the Internet and the ubiquitous PC have come together in
scores of volunteer distributed computing projects that have sprung up
around the globe. Some of the more famous are SETI@home, the search for
extraterrestrial intelligence, FightAIDS@Home, and the recent
anthrax
project, which in its first phase narrowed 3.57 billion molecules
down to 300,000 with therapeutic potential in a stunning 24 days.
(A list of major grid-related projects can be found here.)
Grid computing technologies and the Internet enable the projects to
scavenge idle CPU cycles off volunteers' machines to create a global
supercomputer crunching billions of molecules or calculations that
otherwise wouldn't be possible.
Most of the projects work via a software download that either runs in
the background full-time, or as a screensaver when the computer is idle.
Whole communities have sprung up around these projects, competing as
individuals or teams for top rankings and bragging rights.
Looking for the Right Chemistry
After months of watching these online communities and their intense
partisanship, I finally decided to join up. I chose United Devices, partly because
they're the only Grid computing company focused primarily on a public
exchange - in addition to enterprise - model, and partly because I wanted
to contribute something to the massive cancer research project that UD
is undertaking in conjunction with the University of Oxford's chemistry
department and Intel.
It's the largest computational chemistry project ever undertaken, and it
couldn't be done without the help of the project's 795,000 volunteers
running more than 1.5 million Windows-based machines.
The project has identified 12 proteins
with potential to fight cancer, and is screening 3.5 billion molecules
to see how they interact with those proteins.
Through a "virtual screening" process, special analysis software
identifies the molecules that interact with the proteins, and determines
which of the molecular candidates has a high probability of being
developed into a drug. The process is like searching for the right key
to open a lock by trying billions of molecular keys. And doing it
virtually, on computers, instead of one molecule at a time in a
laboratory.
Participants in the project are sent a unit of molecules over the
Internet. Their PCs analyze the molecules using drug-design software
called THINK. The software analyzes the molecular data by creating a
three-dimensional model and changing its shape or conformation to
attempt to dock it into a protein site. When a conformation docks
successfully and triggers an interaction with the protein, it registers
a "hit." These hits are what the project hinges on; any one hit may be
the one that will ultimately lead to a cure. All hits are recorded,
ranked by strength, and filed for the next stage of the project.
My first day volunteering for the project, I scored 26 "hits," or
molecules with therapeutic potential. Not a bad day's work.
A Cool Screen Saver
You can watch the molecules that your computer is crunching on the nifty
screen saver, or on the UD agent's visual interface if you're running
the software full-time. I tried both screensaver and background
operation, and noticed some sluggishness while running the software in
the background while I worked. I should add that I'm a fairly heavy PC
user, with a dozen or more windows or programs open at any given time,
so lighter users might not notice any drag on performance from full-time
use. So I opted for the screen saver, since every little bit helps, and
in this age of shrinking IT budgets, donating your spare CPU cycles is
an easy way to contribute to scientific and medical discovery.
You don't have to worry about interrupting the program if you need to
work or shut down your machine. UD spokesman Andy Prince said the
project checkpoints after each molecule. Since each work unit contains
dozens if not hundreds of molecules, and each one is screened fairly
quickly, the effect of any interruption is minimal, and the program
picks up where it left off when it starts up again.
UD and its partners take security and privacy seriously, pledging state
of the art controls and precautions.
The results from the project are delivered to the University of Oxford
and the National Foundation for Cancer Research, both non-profit
organizations, for additional study. The University of Oxford will own
the intellectual property associated with any discovery they find, and
the resulting data will be made available to the public, at no cost,
sometime after the initial research is completed.
More than five decades of cancer research have yielded more than 40
drugs for the treatment of cancers, according to the Oxford Web site. With
biotechnology opening the entire human genome to exploration, and Grid
computing enabling the virtual screening of billions of molecules, the
hope is great that that pace of discovery will quicken.
Thanks to the Internet, individual PC users can play a role in that
discovery. And get a pretty cool screensaver in the process.
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