Consider UD For Cancer Research?

[trippy1976]

I see all these posts and races for SETI@Home stuff. I had originally joined the AT team for that, but after a week or so, I got an email and found a link to UD's (United Devices) site. They have several programs similar to SETI but that I felt was a better use of my processing time than searching for extra-terrestrial life. One of these is the Cancer Research program. Cancer Program Link

I started doing that instead. Once the current race ends for SETI (if it does... not sure how those work) perhaps you citizens of AT would consider devoting your time to the cancer stuff. Thousands and thousands of people die each year from cancer.

If anyone would like to join a public team that's already up and running on UD, you can go here and join one. Otherwise, consider doing it on your own if you're not doing anything else or have spare PCs laying around. If there's already an AT team for this, I apologise in advance and would appreciate a PM about it. Thanks.

 

[Poof]

trippy - there is a team working on that... BUT... the last messages I've seen to come out of UD was that the grant for the Cancer Research portion was for 1 year only and thus that project would be ending. The current medical project is for Anthrax.

 

[MoFunk]

I was doing that too until I found out they are ending it. So I went off too look for ET!

 

[trippy1976]

I think it ends in April. In any event, if you do decide to participate with the UD client, put the time in on cancer if you would until it ends. I knew they had added Anthrax (and actually that was the email that brought me to UD initially) but I can't imagine why they would decide to do Antrhax instead of cancer when there's a vaccine at least for Anthrax and nada for Cancer. And really - put the stats side by side. I won't even pretend to know the exact stats of deaths from Cancer vs. Anthrax over the last decade but I think it's very safe to say Antrhax is a tiny little piece of the pie. So anyway, if you do devote time to the UD stuff, please devote it to cancer while you can.

 

[conjur]

Is the UD Cancer project the same as Folding@Home?

 

[Poof]

conjur - no, they're 2 different projects.

trippy - Anthrax (C. anthracis) is a bacterium that produces a toxin that can cause death (as we all know). The vaccine is still somewhat unproven and is only now going through IND status as a treatment, with some Congressional/Postal Workers in the Washington D.C. area being given the injections in order to do the clinical studies. However, much of the research in this area is to try to produce an anti-toxin. The fact that the bacterium was successfully used in a terror attack (however limited), requires that more be done to prevent such in the future and have some course of treatment that doesn't have to involve antibiotics (as the apparent over-use of antibiotics has caused many antibiotic resistance strains of different bacteria to appear).

"Cancer", on the other hand, has SO MANY different causes (environmental, chemical, genetic, etc.) that the chances are low finding some be-all, end-all "cure" via a distributed computing project. Thus Oxford's involvement in this research is very specific to Leukemia and trying to find some chemical or drug substance that will attach to and/or de-activate one or more of the 4 known proteins that appear to cause the disease.

Being that you are in Michigan (if your profile is correct ), you were not exposed to the misery that those of us along the I95 corridor have experienced (and continue to experience despite the fact that it is no longer a national news story) with the Anthrax mess. Statistics aside - if you had a friend or relative who was exposed to and sickened by it via the malicious acts that occurred last fall, or knew that your Post Office was or may have been in the line of fire for cross-contamination, then you might be thinking very differently.

Be that as it may, I have NEVER posted a message that somehow tries to make one project seem more "worthwhile" in my opinion than another. It is up to the individual to decide what they feel is most important for them to run. Part of the beauty of forums such as these is to make people aware of what's out there and let them go to the project's website and make up their own mind. This is why I run as many as I do because I think they are ALL useful.

 

[trippy1976]

When I realised that I'd never seen the Cancer thing mentioned, I did a quick search and no results came up. I feel that it's a good (perhaps 'better' or 'more worthwhile' were poor choices for words, point taken Poof) use of spare computer cycles, so I posted it to increase awareness of the project. I was not trying to talk anyone off what they are doing a I apologize to anyone who took my comments RE: Anthrax to mean I was trivializing the losses of late that we've experienced due to terror and Anthrax. That wasn't my intention, and I can see how it might have been taken as such.

 

[Rattledagger]

Anthrax was completed last week. They only needed 24 days to do all the crunching for this project.

 

[Poof]

The point I hope to make is that TA is involved in MANY wonderful projects. Each has its own niche among the halls of academic research, whether for applied or theoretical purposes.

We have had enough flame wars around this place regarding who's project is [fill in the blank - better, worthier, useless, a waste of time, etc] to make a dedicated TAer cry, and I hope to nip one in the bud.

So let's get out there and crunch, crack, fold, sort, or whatever for TA!!!!!

 

[htmlmasterdave]

UD is done the anthrax research, and is only doing cancer right now