Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Krusher on November 21, 2005, 11:41:47 AM
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They have borrowed the SETI@home model and are going to use it for AIDS research.
link (http://pajamasmedia.com/newsml/html/2005/11/21/6449188_Virtual_supercom.shtml)
The project, dubbed FightAIDS(at)Home, involves virtual testing of hundreds of thousands of chemical compounds to see how they react to a particular protein of the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV.
Computations use a 3-D modelling technique, which will show whether chemical compound molecules will attach themselves to the much larger HIV protein molecule - and exactly where on its structure, said project leader Dr. Arthur Olson.
Sifting through known chemical compounds without a supercomputer would take an estimated 100 years, said Litow. With IBM's World Community Grid, the initial work to select compounds for drug development should be completed in a year.
Joining the grid is as simple as downloading special software from Link to software (http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org ) (which works with both Windows-and Linux-based systems) and leaving the PC powered-up and connected to the Internet. The grid program kicks in when the PC isn't in use - whether it's for five minutes, overnight or for several days - and shuts down when the owner returns to the keyboard.
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I have to wonder if there's anyone who participates on this board who would prefer that a cure for AIDS not be found. Based on the wide range of opinions and politics here, it seems inevitable that there's at least one person out there who sees the epidemic as a positive thing. Is there a way to inquire that doesn't set up the field for a flame war?
In regards to the software, sounds fascinating. I wonder what criteria will be used to determine a 'match', or if the effort will just be used to model various protein scenarios set up by scientists?
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I have used the UD grid agent for a while. I just switched over to the WC agent. Maybe I will find the cure. :D
I think it is stupid that I can't run both agents at the same time.
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I certainly hope mankind does find a cure, but based on our record for finding cures for viruses (which we've NEVER done) I don't find it likely that it will happen.
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Sounds interesting, but I'm currently on a limited bandwidth. Anyone know how much of a drain it is?
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Originally posted by lasersailor184
Sounds interesting, but I'm currently on a limited bandwidth. Anyone know how much of a drain it is?
It's not much of a bandwidth hog at all. Once the agent downloads a work unit (about 500K) your PC just uses idle CPU time to chew on the work unit without any use of bandwidth at all.
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Originally posted by Ripsnort
I certainly hope mankind does find a cure, but based on our record for finding cures for viruses (which we've NEVER done) I don't find it likely that it will happen.
I guess Polio was before your time.
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Originally posted by Mickey1992
It's not much of a bandwidth hog at all. Once the agent downloads a work unit (about 500K) your PC just uses idle CPU time to chew on the work unit without any use of bandwidth at all.
The wife and I just set it up on our home machines, It seems pretty tame resource wise.
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Originally posted by Booz
I guess Polio was before your time.
Nope. Polio is caused by a virus, but its prevention is the disease that polio causes...
Polio, also called poliomyelitis is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by one of three related viruses. Polio is a very serious disease, which can lead to paralysis or even death. One a person is exposed to polio, it usually takes about three to five days for symptoms to appear.
In about 95 percent of polio cases, infection from the polio virus causes no symptoms or serious effects. In about 5 percent of cases, the polio virus manifests in a mild form (abortive polio) with flu-like symptoms, in a nonparalytic form (aseptic meningitis) or in a severe form called paralytic polio. People who have minor or nonparalytic forms recover completely.
Bottom line: Viruses mutate. You can't keep up with them.
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Thanks for the link.
I installed it on the PCs at home and also on the internet workstations at work. Those are slow old beasts but they are running idle 12/24 hours...
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Originally posted by deSelys
Thanks for the link.
I installed it on the PCs at home and also on the internet workstations at work. Those are slow old beasts but they are running idle 12/24 hours...
If you are interested in other projects they have several others that look interesting.
Berkeley Open Infrastructure (http://boinc.berkeley.edu/)
Climateprediction.net: study climate change
Einstein@home: search for gravitational signals emitted by pulsars
LHC@home: improve the design of the CERN LHC particle accelerator
Predictor@home: investigate protein-related diseases
Rosetta@home: help researchers develop cures for human diseases
SETI@home: Look for radio evidence of extraterrestrial life
Cell Computing biomedical research (Japanese; requires nonstandard client software)
World Community Grid: advance our knowledge of human disease. (Requires 5.2.1 or greater)
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Can't forget Folding@Home (http://folding.stanford.edu/) for protein folding. It's had some success so far too.
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Originally posted by Ripsnort
I certainly hope mankind does find a cure, but based on our record for finding cures for viruses (which we've NEVER done) I don't find it likely that it will happen.
A lot of stuff used to have not ever been done before
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Originally posted by indy007
Can't forget Folding@Home (http://folding.stanford.edu/) for protein folding. It's had some success so far too.
Nice one !
It is pretty heady stuff, but it certainly looks worthy.
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Isn'r there some kind of ancient African cure for AIDS? Didn't "Magic" Johnson go over there and he now appears to be free of the virus? Unlike cancer which the medical industry gets a somewhat large amount of money from chemo, pain killers, and other treatments, how much money does the medical field stand to gain from patients infected with AIDS/HIV? If they stand to make a large amount of money, don't count on ever finding a cure for the virus, at least not in the U.S.