Focusing on World Community Grid

[StitchExperimen]

By my count I have 12 hours left of work. 2:30pm mountain March 3rd, now.

 

[ZipSpeed]

Human Proteome Folding ending. Get those WUs if you're still working for a badge! With HCC done and HPF coming to a close, that would leave 5 active projects left. If wonder if there will be new upcoming projects.

Human Proteome Folding, Phase 2 project update

Category: Human Proteome Folding
Tags: Project Update

Summary
The first project to run on World Community Grid, the Human Proteome Folding project, is coming to a close. They have added greatly to the knowledge of protein structures, providing their results to other scientists via their data base resources.


The first project to run on World Community Grid, the Human Proteome Folding project, is coming to a close.

They have greatly added to the knowledge of protein structures, providing their results to other scientists via their data base resources. In addition, the project has published many high quality peer reviewed papers. These publications and the data base resources have helped many other scientists with their own work to understand disease processes and to accelerate their search for cures.

We are a little sad to see the project ending in a few weeks, but we are also very proud of this project's accomplishments. Please read their latest project update for more details.

We thank you, our member volunteers, for contributing to this project and we hope you will continue to contribute to our other projects, as well as the many new ones we expect to launch before too long.

 

[sangyup81]

Thank you for the heads up! I've downloaded many Human Proteome Folding WUs

 

[somethingsketchy]

Project status update for C4CW:

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread_thread,35142_offset,0#422123

 

[ZipSpeed]

World Community Grid - Important Updates

Summary
With centuries of donated computing time, volunteers have finished the computations for several popular research projects. Thank you! But there's still more work to do, as well as new projects and new features ahead!


World Community Grid proves its worth
At the beginning of the year, there were eleven projects running on World Community Grid: an all-time high. Thanks to the hours, months and years of computing time donated by volunteers like you, several projects have recently completed their work on the Grid:

The Help Conquer Cancer project wrapped up in May, about 2.5 years sooner than expected. The addition of GPU computations accelerated the timeframe for this project, and researchers at the Ontario Cancer Institute are already combing through the raw data provided by World Community Grid. We look forward to their publication of exciting and useful findings in the months ahead.
Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy – Phase 2 has been in final validation of the results for the past several months, and that process is now complete. The researchers have received the last of the results so they can begin their analysis.
Discovering Dengue Drugs Together – Phase 2 was a success of a different kind: researchers discovered that the computational method used for the last phase of the project was not reliably refining the screening for the best drug candidates, so they decided to take the project offline while they rethink their technique. They are, however, testing some of the compounds identified by the first phase of their drug screening. While this kind of development may seem frustrating, it’s a vital part of advancing scientific research in general and grid computing research in particular.

In addition, two more projects, Human Proteome Folding- Phase 2 and Go Fight Against Malaria, will be finishing within the next few weeks. Both projects generated valuable data during their participation in World Community Grid. In the case of Go Fight Against Malaria, while phase 1 of the research is complete, the research team hopes to begin a second phase sometime in the future. The Human Proteome Folding project is a larger and ongoing initiative that is being closed due to governmental budget cuts. However, thanks to World Community Grid, the researchers have a vast store of completed computations - data that has been made available to and is already being used by the larger scientific community!

The project pipeline and what’s ahead
The World Community Grid team hasn’t been idle throughout this busy time. Even though the Grid was running a record number of projects, we have kept vetting applications for new projects to run and working behind the scenes to improve the experience for everyone involved: researchers as well as volunteers.
We’re happy to announce that a new project from the Ontario Cancer Institute is in the works! Stay tuned for the reveal of the project name and description later this summer! There are several other projects in the pipeline, so rest assured that you will still be able to contribute to important research.
To help you take advantage of more recent BOINC features, we’ll be adopting BOINC client version 7 soon. Beta testing will begin within the next few weeks, and you can expect the official announcement shortly thereafter.
Thousands of you responded to our volunteer questionnaire a few months ago and gave us vital insights into the present and the future of our volunteer team. We’ll be getting in touch to share the results and opinions with you, and to let you know how your responses are shaping the future of World Community Grid.
And we have one or two surprises in store – watch this space!

What we need from you
We want to make sure that current volunteers like you continue to support projects that still need our help.
Please log in to your My Projects page, review your project selections and make sure you have at least one active project selected. Better yet, consider checking these two boxes on your My Projects page:
"If there is no work available for my computer for the projects I have selected above, please send me work from another project."
"Please opt me in to new projects as they become available."

With your help, we can continue to generate valuable research results for humanitarian efforts all over the world. Thanks for all that you’ve done. We sincerely appreciate it!

 

[Philippart]

thanks for the info! great to see the conclusion of HCC, that project got me into WCG!

 

[Smartazz]

I should have a Q6600 and Phenom II X4 crunching soon

 

[ZipSpeed]

New project! Time to earn a new sapphire badge.

Mapping Cancer Markers

Cancers, one of the leading causes of death worldwide, come in many different types and forms in which uncontrolled cell growth can spread to other parts of the body. Unchecked and untreated, it can ultimately lead to death. The disease is caused by genetic or environmental changes that interfere with biological mechanisms that control cell growth. These changes, as well as normal cell activities, can be detected in tissue samples through the presence of their unique chemical indicators, such as DNA and proteins, which together are known as "markers." Specific combinations of these markers may be associated with a given type of cancer.

The pattern of markers can determine whether an individual is susceptible to developing a specific form of cancer, and may also predict the progression of the disease, helping to suggest the best treatment for a given individual. For example, two patients with the same form of cancer may have different outcomes and react differently to the same treatment due to a different genetic profile. While several markers are already known to be associated with certain cancers, there are many more to be discovered, as cancer is highly heterogeneous.

Mapping Cancer Markers on World Community Grid aims to identify the markers associated with various types of cancer. The project is analyzing millions of data points collected from thousands of healthy and cancerous patient tissue samples. These include tissues with lung, ovarian, prostate, pancreatic and breast cancers. By comparing these different data points, researchers aim to identify patterns of markers for different cancers and correlate them with different outcomes, including responsiveness to various treatment options.

This knowledge can help researchers and physicians to:

• Improve and personalize cancer treatment: by making it possible to detect cancer earlier, identify high-risk patients, and to customize treatment based on a patient's personal genetic profile.

• Accelerate cancer research and improve the overall process for identifying markers: by refining the process of identifying markers, researchers can determine an individual patient's markers more easily, and future large sets of data can be analyzed more efficiently.

https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/research/mcm1/overview.do

 

[VirtualLarry]

Thanks for the heads-up. Glad to be cranking on WCG again.

 

[ZipSpeed]

Great to see our contributions produce meaningful results in real life applications!

Breakthrough in the fight against childhood cancer

20 Feb 2014

Summary
The research team behind the Help Fight Childhood Cancer project has just published a groundbreaking paper. It reveals seven promising drug candidates - identified with the help of World Community Grid members – for neuroblastoma, one of the most common and dangerous forms of childhood cancer.

The Help Fight Childhood Cancer research team at the Chiba Cancer Center in Japan has discovered drug candidates that show great promise as new treatments for neuroblastoma, one of the most common and dangerous forms of childhood cancer. This breakthrough marks one of the most significant scientific discoveries to date for World Community Grid.

Thanks to the contribution of over 200,000 World Community Grid members, the researchers were able to screen three million compounds and identify seven that destroy neuroblastoma tumors in mice without causing any apparent side effects.

The Chiba team plans to partner with a pharmaceutical company for further development, while also expanding their future work on World Community Grid to address other forms of childhood cancer.

https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/about_us/viewNewsArticle.do?articleId=342

 

[petrusbroder]

 

[ZipSpeed]

WCG now makes it easier to track the status of the project:

https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/research/viewAllProjects.do

Also a new diamond badge recognizing higher levels of contribution of 5, 10, 20, 50 and up to 100 years of computing time! Looks something like this:

 

[ZipSpeed]

WCG has a new project to crunch and a badge to earn!

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/research/ugm1/overview.do

Uncovering Genome Mysteries

From the realization that the Penicillium fungus kills germs, to the discovery of bacteria that eat oil spills and the identification of aspirin in willow tree bark, a better understanding of the natural world has resulted in many improvements to human health, welfare, agriculture and industry. This makes perfect sense: millions of organisms have already adapted over billions of years to nearly every condition imaginable, and by understanding how they've done so, we can perhaps use their strengths to benefit humankind. We already know of organisms with properties that could help solve some of the most pressing problems that human society faces, such as drug-resistant pathogens, pollution, and energy shortages. More are certainly out there, if we can find them. This area of study is still in its infancy: most of the organisms in Earth's biosphere have yet to be identified, let alone understood at the genetic level.

The first step in understanding the potential of an unknown organism is to decode its DNA sequence. This sequence reveals the organism's genes: the specific commands encoded in the DNA that control what each cell does and give life its amazing diversity. Understanding the genes and what they do is crucial to understanding the organism's role in the environment, as well as for the development of any potential medical and industrial applications as most of the proteins we find in a cell are enzymes. Enzymes are involved in breaking down food into useful components and building all kinds of molecules that the cell needs to survive.

Because of recent advances in DNA sequencing technology, it is now possible to decode organisms' DNA very rapidly and identify their genes. However, the next step--understanding the function of each gene and the protein it encodes--is much more complex, making it very difficult to do so on a large scale.

Uncovering Genome Mysteries plans to change that by examining close to 200 million genes from a wide variety of life forms, such as microorganisms found on seaweeds from Australian coastlines and in the Amazon river. The predicted proteins they encode will be compared against each other to assess their similarity. When two proteins are similar, and the function of one protein is already known, this similarity allows scientists to make educated predictions about the function of the other.

The scale of the task is staggering. It is only feasible thanks to the massive computational power of World Community Grid. While sequences from all forms of life will be processed, microorganisms will receive a special focus.

Uncovering Genome Mysteries will create and publish a database of protein sequence comparison information for all scientists to reference.

Once published, these results should help scientists with the following tasks:

• Discovering new protein functions and augmenting knowledge about biochemical processes in general

• Identifying how organisms interact with each other and the environment

• Documenting the current baseline microbial diversity, allowing a better understanding of how microorganisms change under environmental stresses, such as climate change

• Understanding and modeling complex microbial systems

In addition, a better understanding of these organisms and their proteins and enzymes will likely be useful in developing new medicines, harnessing new sources of renewable energy, improving nutrition, cleaning the environment, creating green industrial processes and many other advances.

 

[GLeeM]

Thanks for keeping us updated, ZipSpeed

Any idea when/if WCG will have another GPU project?

 

[ZipSpeed]

From what I've been reading, there's no GPU work in the immediate future. The WCG techs are generally secretive so perhaps there may be something in the works. I crunch their beta units so it will be easy to know when something starts. Fingers crossed, my GPUs generally don't do much work these days! With cooler weather coming, I may have to start up GPU Grid or something.

 

[ZipSpeed]

Resurrecting an old thread. There has been some solid contribution by Mark and Tony to WCG, so kudos to those gentlemen. Plus those who contributed to the BOINC race during the 2017 holiday season, we've been moving up the ranks and sitting at a solid #60. It looks like there's some solid opportunities to get even further this year! I have procured some new (to me) hardware from Mark, so while I won't be matching his output anytime soon, maybe we can hit rank #50 by the end of the year!