The Rothberg Institute for Childhood Diseases today announced the release of the first avian influenza target to its Drug Design and Optimization Lab (D2OL) distributed computing project.
D2OL is a grid-computing project that harnesses volunteer computers from the online community. The project uses computers' idle time to create a supercomputer capable of using mathematical and statistical models to rapidly test the effectiveness of potential drugs to fight the avian influenza viruses. When installed on a computer, D2OL runs in the system tray and sends results back to the central servers at The Rothberg Institute when an Internet link is established.
Anyone with a personal computer can contribute to this project simply by downloading a screensaver that works when their computer is idle. The D2OL currently comprises of nearly 80,000 volunteers and their computers in 93 countries working to identify potential new drugs for treating avian flu and other infectious diseases.
Of all avian flu viruses that have infected humans, Avian Influenza A, or H5N1, has been found to be the most prevalent and the most deleterious to the health of its human hosts. It is, therefore, the most likely of the avian flu viruses to mutate sufficiently to facilitate person-to-person infection, and the world continues to monitor avian flu hotbeds in Asia and Europe for the potential nucleus of a worldwide H5N1 pandemic.
Wolfgang Hinz, head of Computational Chemistry at The Rothberg Institute said "Were excited to have a target that anyone can download to their personal computer that will allow them to participate in the development of drugs for both tuberous sclerosis and cancer"
The software to participate in the fight against avian flu is available at http://www.d2ol.com.
|
|
Reader Comments: 0
