(Toronto, Ontario) A massive project is harnessing the power of tens of thousandsof personal computers around the world in a bid to winnow out potential drugs tomore effectively fight the global scourge of AIDS.
A virtual supercomputer grid, created by IBM, will allow individuals andbusinesses to donate down-time on their personal computers via a secure website.The idle PCs will be used to run millions of computations in the search forchemical compounds that could eventually provide more effective HIV therapies,the company was to announce Monday.
``This project was created about a year ago . . . essentially to create avirtual supercomputer devoted specifically to humanitarian purposes,'' saidStanley Litow, IBM vice-president for corporate community relations.
``We've been working over the last year to build the number of PCs that areconnected and we've also been working on a first research project, analyzing allthe proteins in the human body,'' Litow told The Canadian Press from New York.
The project, dubbed FightAIDS(at)Home, involves virtual testing of hundredsof thousands of chemical compounds to see how they react to a particular proteinof the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV.
Computations use a 3-D modeling technique, which will show whether chemicalcompound molecules will attach themselves to the much larger HIV proteinmolecule _ and exactly where on its structure, said project leader Dr. ArthurOlson.
Olson, a molecular biologist at the non-profit Scripps Research Institute,likened the process of seeking the right fit - called ``docking'' - to an antcrawling over a potato, looking for a spot it likes and settling on one of thespud's eyes.
Compounds that dock well would then be tested in Olson's laboratory to seewhat effect they have on HIV in test-tube and animal research. Promisingcompounds would be published in open-access scientific journals so that otherresearchers could retrieve data for their own experiments.
The project will also include a search for drug compounds that might workagainst mutated versions of the virus, which render them increasingly resistantto current drug therapies.
An estimated 40 million people worldwide are infected with HIV, which killedmore than three million last year alone, says the United Nations agency UNAIDS.An estimated 56,000 Canadians are infected with the virus.
Sifting through known chemical compounds without a supercomputer would takean estimated 100 years, said Litow. With IBM's World Community Grid, the initialwork to select compounds for drug development should be completed in a year.
Joining the grid is as simple as downloading special software fromwww.worldcommunitygrid.org (which works with both Windows- and Linux-based systems) and leaving the PCpowered-up and connected to the Internet. The grid program kicks in when the PCisn't in use _ whether it's for five minutes, overnight or for several days _and shuts down when the owner returns to the keyboard.
``It's actually doing calculations for the AIDS project while you're notusing it,'' Litow said.
Currently, more than 100,000 people are donating time on 170,000 personalcomputers, he noted, but IBM wants to see that number grow.
``There are 650 million PCs in the world, so the more people who participatein this project, the more powerful it would be,'' he said.
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