Finding a Cure for Cancer... On the Internet |
| Could the combination of two computer technologies
find a cure for cancer? The American Cancer Society, the National Foundation
for Cancer Research, the University of Oxford, United Devices, Inc. of
Austin, Texas, and Intel Corporation think it could, and they’ve already
enlisted more than 300,000 people to help.
Using computational chemistry and peer-to-peer technology, the innovative research project has harnessed the combined resources of more than 400,000 personal computers across the internet to search for a possible cure for leukemia. Like a screen saver, the software on each computer works only when the machine is sitting idle. It includes comprehensive protections to ensure security and personal privacy. Anyone who wants to help can volunteer their machine. The novel cancer research program is screening hundreds of millions of molecules to evaluate their effect on four proteins that are known to be critical in the growth of cancerous cells. Scientists at the National Foundation for Cancer Research projected that this would require tens of millions of hours of computer time, a prospect that was previously unthinkable. By breaking the job into smaller pieces and harnessing idle computer resources on the internet, they believe the time required to develop a new cancer treatment could be reduced from 12 to five years. Announced only at the beginning of April, the program has already logged almost 40 million computer hours. RESOURCES: United Devices Cancer Research Program (sponsored
by Intel) - United Devices - Sidebar: The Virtual Chemistry Lab Chemistry isn’t the messy business it used to be. Today computers do much of the hands-on work, and the pharmaceutical industry is one of the biggest users. New compounds can be synthesized quickly and screened for possible medical applications using only mathematics and high-speed computers. Researchers often start with a molecule that is known to be beneficial, and use the computer to create thousands of variants. Each of these variants can then be tested to see if it reacts with a disease target. Chemistry and pharmacology have increasingly become an information science. Computers are also commonly used for chemical visualization. Special-purpose software displays molecules on the computer screen, where they can be rotated and viewed from different perspectives. Very capable applications for this purpose can be found on the internet. Extensive libraries of downloadable pdb files can also be found online, describing a wide variety of complex molecules. RESOURCES: Council for Chemical Research - Molecular Simulations Inc. - University of Wisconsin - Sidebar: Peer-to-Peer Computing When 18-year old university dropout Shawn Fanning invented Napster, who would have predicted that he’d start a revolution? Fanning unsettled the recording industry by creating software that tens of millions of people have used to share music files over the internet – for free. In February, Napster was ordered by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to put controls in place to prevent online trading of copyrighted material. But even if Napster is silenced, dozens of imitators are now ready to take its place. What Fanning created and what others have copied is a new way for computers to interact online. Instead of one computer being subservient to another, as in previous computer networks, in Fanning’s system all computers are equal. The revolution is well underway. There’s a newly formed Peer-to-Peer Working Group and a Peer-to-Peer and Web Services Conference. New start-ups are emerging to develop applications of the technology. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Intel Chairman Andy Grove have both expressed strong optimism about its future. Intel believes that peer-to-peer computing will drive the next generation of the internet. The company established the Intel Philanthropic Peer-to-Peer Program in April to help raise public awareness of the technology and its potential. The United Devices Cancer Research Program is the first initiative. Intel President Craig Barrett expects that by connecting large numbers of computers on the internet it will be possible to create the equivalent of a 50 Teraflop machine. This computing power far exceeds the combined capability of the world’s top 500 supercomputers, which total only about 1.47 Teraflops in comparison. RESOURCES: Information Week - O’Reilly & Associates - Peer-to-Peer Working Group - |
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