Rosetta@Home - Find a Cure for Alzheimer's Disease at Home (BOINC)

Today, I will introduce the Rosetta@home project, which is another of many projects running on the BOINC platform.

If you still do not know what BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) is, you can read one of my previous articles here.

BOINC lets volunteers provide the computing power of their computers and participate in a variety of scientific projects. Scientists need huge computing power to perform many different simulations. Results of the simulations can be used to develop new drugs against diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, AIDS, tuberculosis, and so on.

Alternatively, volunteers can engage in projects quite differently oriented and can search for new pulsars or participate in research and modeling of the Milky Way galaxy.

Everyone can easily find their favorite project.

The Importance of Proteins

Rosetta@home is a project focusing on protein structure research and design of new proteins.

Proteins are the basic building blocks of living organisms and secure various biochemical processes in our body. The vast majority of chemical reactions in our cells are provided or influenced by different proteins.

For the proper functioning of the proteins it is essential that the individual proteins are in their stable functional form (shape of protein often determines its function). Proteins acquire its form in a physical process called protein folding.

Protein before and after folding (SOURCE - Public Domain)

However, if proteins fold into wrong shape, they are inactive and can be even toxic. If these toxic proteins begin to accumulate in our body, it can lead to serious diseases.

An example is an Alzheimer's disease that arises from the accumulation of amyloid beta (peptide derived from the amyloid precursor protein) in the brain.

Rosetta@home

By participating in Rosetta@home you will help Dr. David Baker and his team at Washington University design and understand the 3-dimensional shapes of proteins.

Previously, it was possible to discover the function of proteins only in laboratories, which was very expensive and also slow. Nowadays, these experiments can already be done at home.

Example of graphic interface of work unit running on my computer

All you need is a computer and an Internet connection. 

Once you join the project, your computer will download the latest Rosetta@home application (CPU only) and the first work units. After your computer completes the work units, it will send the results back and receive additional work units.

Scientists can then focus more on proteins with best results that could be used in the development of anti-disease drugs, maybe even against Alzheimer's disease mentioned above. 

On Rosetta@home website you can select prefered lenght of work units. Longer work units wil run more simulations.

Is There Any Financial Reward for Participating?

Rosetta@home is a nonprofit project. For finished work units, you will receive BOINC credits that serve only for statistical purposes.

However, there is a possibility to mine Gridcoin just by running BOINC. Gridcoin was designed to reward volunteer computing performed upon the BOINC platform. You can read more about Gridcoin here.

Maybe it will be just your computer that will lead to a discovery that will change the world. Why not give it a chance?