grid.org (formally United Devices) run a number of distributed projects, including a a joint project with the Chemistry Department of the University of Oxford, to find potential anti-cancer drugs. This works by checking for possible interactions between billions of chemicals and a handful of target proteins. So essentially, this is a huge jigsaw puzzle which is being solved by brute force. If a certain level of interaction is detected between a chemical and a target protein, then this is flagged in the returned results for further analysis. If the interaction looks promising, the chemical would eventually enter the early stages of drug trials. The target proteins are chosen due to their roles in cancers - both specific types, and cancers in general.
Contributors to the grid.org projects get entered into daily and monthly prize draws. The details are on their website. Other projects include searching for drugs for diseases such as smallpox.
FAQ, downloads,etc are also available from their website. If you join the team, please send me your details and I can add you to the website.
As with the other distributed Internet projects, opinions vary hugely about how worthwhile the grid.org projects are. On the one side, some people see the cancer project as the only project worth considering on moral grounds - help fight cancer and save lives. Other people see it as doing the initial hard work for a highly commercial product but without seeing any of the financial benefits.
Team Page at grid.org (go here to join our Team)
Oxford University's site describing the project (and their screensaver).
So Who is this Challis Bloke Anyway?
Prof. James Challis' Most Excellent UK Team also works on the SETI@Home project, the climateprediction.net project, the NFSNet Project, and the distributed.net projects.
Return to the main Challis Team Page.
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