Smallpox Researchers Seek Help From Millions of Computer Users

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Smallpox Researchers Seek Help From Millions of Computer Users

February 5, 2003
By STEVE LOHR 




 

Responding to worries that smallpox could become a weapon
of bioterrorism, a group of research universities and
corporations and the Defense Department are announcing
today a networked computer project intended to accelerate
the search for a cure for smallpox.

The project is to use computing power contributed by a few
million personal computer owners linked to the Internet
worldwide to try to winnow the number of chemical compounds
that might show promise in combating smallpox.

The goal is to use the results to develop drugs to thwart
the smallpox virus after infection.

The only defense against smallpox today is preventive
vaccination. The Bush administration has proposed
vaccinating hundreds of thousands of American health
workers, followed by millions of firefighters, police
officers and ambulance workers.

The administration's plan has run into resistance from some
health experts who are concerned about the side effects and
efficacy of a widespread vaccination program.

The new smallpox research program is a collaborative effort
of chemical and biological experts from institutions like
Oxford University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer
Center; companies with expertise in creating and using
computer grids, including I.B.M., United Devices and
Accelrys; and the United States Army Medical Research
Institute of Infectious Diseases.

To succeed, the project will need help from a few million
people willing to contribute the unused computing power of
their home or office personal computers. Their spare
computer cycles will be the source of the computing
firepower - more, collectively, than the world's largest
supercomputer - to search for smallpox-fighting compounds.

Steady advances in processing power, network capacity and
software have made it possible to assemble distributed
computing networks that can be directed at a problem like
smallpox. A comparatively simple but well-known distributed
computing application is the SETI@home program, begun in
1999, which harnesses the spare power of millions of
personal computers to seek signs of extraterrestrial
intelligence. 

The smallpox computing project will work similarly. A
person clicks to register and download a screen saver
program from a Web site, www.grid.org. When the machine is
turned on but not in use, the program uses it as part of
the computing grid.

The project will use molecular modeling and screening
techniques to test how strongly a wide range of druglike
compounds interact with an important enzyme used by the
smallpox virus. The goal is to find molecular compounds
that block the enzyme, called topoisomerase, preventing the
virus from replicating.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/05/health/05SMAL.html?ex=1045436465&ei=1&en=2
3671d04a7b28e03



HOW TO ADVERTISE
---------------------------------
For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters
or other creative advertising opportunities with The
New York Times on the Web, please contact
onlinesales () nytimes com or visit our online media
kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo

For general information about NYTimes.com, write to
help () nytimes com.  

Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company


------ End of Forwarded Message

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To unsubscribe or update your address, click
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/