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The human brain benefits from taking breaks, but a computer can go strong all day. So why not enlist its power in cutting-edge research while you are away reenergizing over coffee or lunch?

A new program is recruiting computers’ idle time in the fight against diseases like HIV infection and Alzheimer’s. Developed by a team at the University of Delaware, with funding from the National Science Foundation, Docking@Home joins a growing list of projects—from listening for space aliens to modeling climate change—that are tapping into the open-source system called BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing).

“Even without large resources of supercomputers, we can do meaningful research with the help of volunteers across the Internet,” says Michela Taufer, an assistant professor of computer and information sciences at the University of Delaware. She is leading the project that aims to ramp up resources in the race for cures.

Testing the millions of potential components for a drug in a lab setting is extremely slow, expensive and error-prone. Instead, scientists typically use supercomputers in the early phases of research, relying on them to sort through the seemingly infinite combinations of promising molecules, called ligands. The choice ligands are those able to bind to, or “dock” inside of, a protein associated with a disease and either cancel out or produce a signal. Whereas HIV therapy would aim to turn off virus replication, Alzheimer's treatment would seek to activate a connection in the brain.

But access to this kind of computing power can be limited. “That problem can be solved by breaking up the search into little pieces and sending them out to volunteers to work on,” says Kevin Kreiser, a Ph.D. student at the University of Delaware and a member of the project staff. The team is now comparing model results from more than 6,000 worldwide volunteers to see that they match results in the wet lab. After the simulations are validated, the next step is to “go out and search for new drugs,” Kreiser says.

Donations of computers’ idle time could increase the speed with which potential new medicines enter the lab and, with luck, find their way to patients. “We will help scientists by narrowing down the list of potential target molecules,” Taufer says.

Someday users may be able to choose molecules and position them into target proteins themselves, through a graphical interface. This latest project, Kreiser says, aims to “harness users' intelligence to make computation happen faster.”

For now, volunteers can simply relax with coffee in hand and let their computers slave away. The project’s current screensaver, also developed by Kreiser, shows off users’ contributions to science with 3D representations of the molecular structures being manipulated. “You don’t have to sit there and work for hours on end,” Kreiser says. “Just let it run in the background. No pain.”

Image of HIV protease, one of the targets of the project's simulated molecules, by theasis via iStockPhoto.

12 Comments

1. 1. leinad 09:06 PM 6/22/09

   how do i doit
   

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2. 2. leinad 09:08 PM 6/22/09

   how do i doit
   

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3. 3. sereptajane in reply to leinad 09:46 PM 6/22/09

   Click on the Docking@Home link in the article and you'll find out how to get started.

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4. 4. rgall 10:21 PM 6/22/09

   You can also donate time to other projects by going
   to [url=http://boinc.berkeley.edu/] Boinc [/url]
   
   I donate time for the detection of gravitational waves and climate modeling

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5. 5. rgall in reply to rgall 10:24 PM 6/22/09

   Just go to BOINC Link in the article

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6. 6. PEG 05:47 AM 6/23/09

   Sounds like a great idea, does it effect your computer in any way I wonder?

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7. 7. ag5bpilot in reply to PEG 12:08 PM 6/23/09

   Does it affect your computer?
   Yes. Your computer will be running at 100% continuously, which means it will consume more electricity, produce more heat, and its fans will make more noise. There is also some discussion that the extended high temperature runs may, over long periods of time, cause hardware problems, but there's very little data for either side of that argument. I personally have been running various projects on and off for the last 10 years and have never seen any problems.

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8. 8. kevinkreiser in reply to ag5bpilot 11:58 AM 6/26/09

   Actually, the amount of resources (CPU time, RAM, hard drive space, network bandwidth) it uses is entirely configurable inside BOINC. If you don't want it to use 100% of your resources you can easily bring that number down to whatever level you want. Once you've started up BOINC, just click on advanced at the top, and go to preferences. There you will have 3 tabs to configure BOINC to use your computer's resources how you see fit.

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9. 9. Scientific_Frontline 08:48 PM 6/26/09

   Wonderful Project!
   As the founder of the project for the number one team in recent average credit. We at team Phoenix Rising would like to offer and help if you have issues or questions about this project.
   at: http://forums.teamphoenixrising.net/index.php
   You do not need to be a member of the team, we are more then willing to assist all.
   Yet if you are looking for a team you can join us at: http://docking.cis.udel.edu/community/team/members.php?teamid=425&offset=0&sort_by=expavg_credit
   Sincerely,
   Heidi-Ann Kennedy
   Director
   Scientific Frontline
   and team founder of
   Phoenix Rising Dockers
   
   

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10. 10. Scientific_Frontline in reply to ag5bpilot 08:52 PM 6/26/09

    That is not necessarily true, there is options in the BOINC client to control how much CPU usage to allow. This does help control heat issues when ambient temps are to high for 100% CPU usage.
    Heidi-Ann Kennedy
    Scientific Frontline

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11. 11. Spark 02:08 PM 7/18/09

    I suggest to anyone interested in joining Docking@home to do so through GridRepublic.org. GridRepublic is a 501(c)(3) non-profit working in collaboration with BOINC to create an easy and simple way to discover, join, and manage your interaction with projects that use BOINC like Docking@home.
    
    GridRepublic makes things easy by a single registration and login allows you to join as many projects as you want with simple point and click of your mouse.. Discover the many other projects out there with GridRepublic.
    
    The GridRepublic website is http://www.gridrepublic.org and you can find them on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/gridrepublic

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12. 12. Spark 02:08 PM 7/18/09

    I suggest to anyone interested in joining Docking@home to do so through GridRepublic.org. GridRepublic is a 501(c)(3) non-profit working in collaboration with BOINC to create an easy and simple way to discover, join, and manage your interaction with projects that use BOINC like Docking@home.
    
    GridRepublic makes things easy by a single registration and login allows you to join as many projects as you want with simple point and click of your mouse.. Discover the many other projects out there with GridRepublic.
    
    The GridRepublic website is http://www.gridrepublic.org and you can find them on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/gridrepublic

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this