IBM project to take on AIDS ; Computer grid speeds up process; [Chicagoland Final , CN Edition]

Jon Van, Tribune staff reporter. Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Ill.: Nov 21, 2005. pg. 1

Abstract (Document Summary) The grid is designed so that it can accommodate up to 10 million computers. Other projects addressing human disease, environmental problems and other humanitarian research will be addressed by the grid as it grows more powerful, [Stanley Litow] said.

(Copyright 2005 by the Chicago Tribune)

An effort to turn home computers into a research tool is joining the battle against AIDS.

A project backed by IBM Corp. called the World Community Grid links individual computers in what amounts to one humongous supercomputer. For the past year, this virtual supermachine has been crunching numbers to simulate proteins folding.

The grid has produced descriptions of some 120,000 human proteins, with that information going into a database available to researchers around the globe. The goal is understanding how proteins can become involved in diseases and finding new ways to treat or cure diseases that range from malaria to cancer.

On Monday, IBM is expected to announce that the next target for this powerful grid is AIDS.

Once it infects someone, human immunodeficiency virus usually will blossom into AIDS. Physicians use various medications to thwart HIV's progress, but it is a moving target because the virus evolves into drug-resistant forms. Researchers try to keep ahead of the process by discovering new HIV therapies that can outmaneuver the virus.

That's the goal in a lab headed by Dr. Arthur J. Olson at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, where computer modeling has become a vital tool in fighting AIDS.

"We're looking for new compounds that not only affect one HIV mutant, but a broad array of them," said Olson. "It's a very time- consuming task."

Instead of putting drug compounds into test tubes with the virus, Olson's research first pits them against each other in computer models. That's a cheaper, faster way of working through millions of match-ups.

"Computation is the one thing that gets cheaper all the time," Olson said.

Even so, supercomputers cost millions of dollars, and the World Community Grid, which is made up of computers donated for use when they sit idle, is as powerful as any supercomputer available.

"We've used some grid computing to do computer modeling," said Olson, "but this will take us up another order of magnitude of computational power. We can ask more complex questions."

Drug candidates identified as promising by Olson's lab then can be tried in traditional fashion, pitting actual compounds against HIV in test tubes and in cells. Computer modeling is intended to raise the likelihood of success from such experiments.

Anyone can volunteer his or her computer to the grid by going to www.worldcommunitygrid.org and downloading its software.

When a donor computer is online, the grid will parcel out some work to be done while the computer isn't in use. Once completed, the grid material is automatically submitted the next time the member computer goes online. It then gets a new assignment.

Almost 100,000 people worldwide have donated time on their personal computers to participate in the grid, said Stanley Litow, head of the IBM Foundation. Many have donated time on more than one computers.

"Usually when someone seeks a charitable donation, you write them a check," said Litow. "This is an innovative way of giving. You donate downtime from your computer."

Even though there's no monetary cost to the donor, the value to science research can be huge, Litow said. For instance, had the protein-folding work been done on a single supercomputer, it could've taken 100 years to complete. But the grid accomplished all that computation in a year.

The grid operation is so secure that after a year's operations "we haven't gotten even one complaint from a donor" related to security breaches, Litow said.

Donors are kept up to date on research progress and how much their work computers contribute, he said. Some companies, universities and other organizations have formed donor teams that compete to see who is doing the most to further research progress.

Noting that more than 650 million computers are in operation around the globe, Litow said there's almost unlimited potential to grow the community grid.

"We'd like to have 500,000 donors," he said. "The more people we have, the more power we have, and the more projects the grid can handle."

The grid is designed so that it can accommodate up to 10 million computers. Other projects addressing human disease, environmental problems and other humanitarian research will be addressed by the grid as it grows more powerful, Litow said.

----------

jvan@tribune.com

Copyright (c) 2005, Chicago Tribune