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Ladies and Gentlemen... GRID/UD SFN Style


MolecularMan14

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Well, I figured, since we now have a Folding@home team, why not have a UD team too? So, I made one :)

http://www.grid.org/services/teams/team.htm?id=399A2A49-BA89-4767-B7AA-60DA11FCC51F

 

And if anyone does not have UD, then you can easily download here

http://www.grid.org/download/gold/download.htm

 

Join up, make a difference!

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Download the UD Agent

 

United Devices invites you to download our software — a small program called the UD Agent — and become a Member of the United Devices Community. The UD Agent can recycle your PC's unused resources and use them to perform valuable scientific and medical research without disturbing your usual computer use.

 

What exactly does that mean? What kind of "scientific research" ? (I do not promote research into weapons technology). Maybe if you gave a better picture of what it does, what it can do and why we should join you might get more teamates. :)

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Taken from http://www.grid.org/projects/

 

Human Proteome Folding Project

 

Current Project: Human Proteome Folding

United Devices has begun a new and exciting research project -- the Human Proteome Folding Project -- in collaboration with the Institute for Systems Biology, the University of Washington, and IBM Corporation.

The Human Proteome Folding Project analyzes sequence data from the Human Genome to predict how the proteins coded there are likely to function. Since proteins directly affect human health and are key targets in developing disease treatments, understanding their structure and function is critical. At present only a fraction of human protein structures are known -- this project seeks to dramatically increase that number and make the data available to scientists for further study by the end of 2005.

 

http://www.grid.org/projects/hpf/about.htm

 

About the Project

In the 3 billion letters (the bases A, G, C, and T) that make up the formula for a human being is hidden all the information necessary to understand life and the building blocks of life -- the cell.

 

Each of the genes in the human genome encodes a protein that is made as a long poly-peptide (like a zig-zag) that must then fold up to make a functioning protien. Functions in the living cell depend on these folded proteins: motion, biochemical reactions, the structure of cells, transport of materials in the body, receptors and signaling, and many more -- proteins are truly the basis of life.

 

Proteins, protein malfunctions / deformities, over-expressed proteins, under-expressed proteins, and a host of other issues with proteins lie at the core of many diseases. Proteins are thus natural targets for drugs, and many drug development organizations use protein targets when testing a potential drug's effects. As such, the promise of understanding the complete set of human proteins, what their structures are and how they interact in the human body is a hugely important scientific problem that could lead to treatments for a myriad of human diseases.

 

The Ultimate Puzzle

Today only a portion of the proteins that exist in the human genome are known. Estimates place the fraction of proteins with known structure/function in the 30% range, but since no one is yet sure of the total number of proteins in humans this is just an estimate. We can attempt to determine the function of the remaining proteins in a number of ways experimentally, all of which are time consuming, expensive or both. One of the most promising methods available is through the use of computers to predict the three-dimensional structure of proteins directly from human genome sequence data.

 

Cancer Research

 

http://www.grid.org/projects/cancer/about.htm

 

The United Devices Cancer Research Project will advance research to uncover new cancer drugs through the combination of chemistry, computers, specialized software, and organizations and individuals who are committed to fighting cancer.

 

The research centers on proteins that have been determined to be a possible target for cancer therapy. Through a process called "virtual screening", special analysis software will identify molecules that interact with these proteins, and will determine which of the molecular candidates has a high likelihood of being developed into a drug. The process is similar to finding the right key to open a special lock — by looking at millions upon millions of molecular keys.

 

There's actually an FAQ for the cancer project that some might like to review-

http://www.grid.org/projects/cancer/faq.htm

 

Really all you have to do is look around their site in search of information on what they do, how they do it, and why the're so damned good at it :)

 

(some of their past projects- http://www.grid.org/projects/past.htm)http://www.grid.org/projects/past.htm

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