GENOME@HOME
Q.
What is Genome@Home all about?
A. The goal of Genome@Home is to design new
genes that can form working proteins in the
cell. Genome@home uses a computer algorithm
(SPA), based on the physical and biochemical
rules by which genes and proteins behave, to
design new proteins (and hence new genes) that
have not been found in nature. By comparing
these "virtual genomes" to those found
in nature, we can gain a much better understanding
of how natural genomes have evolved and how
natural genes and proteins work. Some important
applications of the Genome@home virtual genome
protein design database
·
Engineering new proteins for medical therapy
· Designing new pharmaceuticals
· Assigning functions to the dozens of
new genes being sequenced every day
· Understanding protein evolution
The
Genome@Home project is run by Stanford University.
Basically you download a program from their
site and it runs in the background using your
spare computer cycles to process some scientific
data. This doesn't slow down your computer since
it only processes whenever the CPU isn't occupied.
The
data/research for this project will lead to
new medicines and treatments (and hopefully
cures) for many diseases including Cancer, Alzheimers,
etc. as well as other fields (nanotechnology)
This
is an excellent project that taps on the power
of the Internet for this cause - this is in
line with ThinkQuest's ideals
For
more information visit the main site at http://gah.stanford.edu
Those
who derive satisfaction from overclocking your
CPU (Central Processing Unit) may be interested.
Any
extra CPU power to spare? Why not visit the
above web site for a good cause? Also, for those
overclockers, do you want to test your system
stability and compare how fast your overclocked
CPU is compared to the existing members running
the Genome client? It's all for a good cause
for medical research and it will be definitely
benefit mankind and not forgetting having some
fun too among fellow Singaporeans. What could
be more fun than truly putting your computer
to the test and seeing how it stacks up against
the competition. Stress your system to the limit
and see what you're made of!
A
day or two's worth of running Genome@home is
enough to design new protein sequences that
the world has never seen before. All the sequences
get added to the Genome@home database, so every
little bit helps.
Singaporeans
have been very active in this project. On March
15, 2001, a group of Singaporeans created a
team known simply as SINGAPORE to contribute
to this cause and at the same time have some
fun competing with other countries for the top
spot. The website of the Singapore team is at
http://www.geocities.com/genohome
Whatever
your nationality, do join in this interesting
and worthwhile project now!
