OpenPandemics COVID-19 World Community Grid Project

Author: Ian C. Langtree - Writer/Editor for Disabled World (DW)
Published: 2020/05/23 - Updated: 2026/01/16
Publication Type: Charts, Graphs, Tables
Category Topic: Calculators - Charts - Related Publications

Page Content: Synopsis - Introduction - Main - Insights, Updates

Synopsis: This information explains how idle computing power from personal devices can be harnessed through a volunteer distributed computing platform to accelerate scientific research such as COVID-19 drug discovery, cancer marker mapping, and infectious disease studies. It outlines the role of researchers at a major biomedical institute and describes how volunteers' computers run background simulations that predict compound interactions with viral proteins, with aggregated results delivered to professional research teams for analysis. The content is authoritative because it details active research collaborations and practical participation steps, offering useful context for individuals, including seniors or people with disabilities, who may be interested in contributing computational resources to science without direct physical involvement - Disabled World (DW).

Introduction

COVID-19 is a disease caused by SARS-CoV2, a virus of the coronavirus family. These viruses cause diseases that affect mainly the human respiratory system and potentially other major organs. COVID-19 can lead to serious illness or even death. You and your computer can help scientists at Scripps Research find potential treatments.

Main Content

Scripps Research is a nonprofit American medical research facility focusing on biomedical science research and education. Headquartered in La Jolla, California, with a sister facility in Jupiter, Florida, the institute has 250 laboratories employing 2,400 scientists, technicians, graduate students, and administrative and other staff, making it the largest private, non-profit biomedical research organization in the United States and among the largest in the world.

First identified as pneumonia of unknown origin at the end of 2019, the disease was named COVID-19 in February 2020. COVID-19 proved to be highly infectious and quickly spread to every continent. Soon after COVID-19 was identified, scientists began creating a vaccine to help prevent the virus's spread. However, this process will likely take many months, or possibly years, even with a concerted, global effort among scientists and accelerated clinical trials.

When you become a World Community Grid volunteer, you donate your device's spare computing power to help scientists solve the world's biggest problems in health and sustainability. And because all data, tools, and processes that are developed through OpenPandemics - COVID-19 will be shared freely, the project can benefit the scientific community at large.

Screenshot of the computer screen saver of Team Disabled World running the OpenPandemics COVID-19 Project.

Other World Community Grid Projects

World Community Grid projects you can contribute computing power to include:

Smash Childhood Cancer - Most current cancer research focuses on cancers that primarily affect adults. That's why World Community Grid volunteers are helping an international research team find new treatments for some of the most common childhood cancers.
FightAIDS@Home - AIDS is constantly evolving. You, and your computer, can play a key role in helping the millions of people afflicted by this deadly virus.
Mapping Cancer Markers - Early and accurate detection saves lives. Your computer can power the search for molecular markers to help researchers detect cancer earlier and design more effective cancer treatments.
Microbiome Immunity Project - Trillions of bacteria inside our bodies may play a large role in developing diseases such as Type 1 diabetes. How? Help researchers find out in this comprehensive study of the human microbiome.
Help Stop TB - Your computer can help researchers learn more about tuberculosis and how to overcome it. A third of the world's population harbors the tuberculosis bacterium, and the disease killed 1.5 million people in 2014, making it one of the world's deadliest diseases.
Africa Rainfall Project - Your computer runs simulations of rainstorms in sub-Saharan Africa, and these simulations are used to help farmers successfully raise their crops. As the Africa Rainfall Project researchers receive the results of these simulations, they'll be compared with rainfall data from The Weather Company, satellite data, and ground observations.

Accelerate Research: No Investment of Time or Money

OpenPandemics - COVID-19 is one such effort, led by researchers in the Forli Lab at Scripps Research, who are accelerating the search by enlisting the help of World Community Grid volunteers.

As a World Community Grid volunteer, you download a software program to your computer. When your computer is not using its full computing power, it automatically runs a simulated experiment in the background which will help predict the effectiveness of a particular chemical compound in inhibiting functions of viral proteins as a possible treatment for COVID-19. Your computer then returns the results of the completed simulation and requests the next simulation. World Community Grid combines the results from your computer with millions of results from other volunteers worldwide and sends them to the Scripps Research team for analysis.

Editor: Well known for its SETI@home project, BOINC and Rosetta@home also run health and medical programs on home computers, including COVID-19, to predict the structure of proteins important to the coronavirus disease as well as to produce new, stable mini-proteins to be used as potential therapeutics and diagnostics.

Insights, Analysis, and Developments

Editorial Note: In an era where scientific challenges demand both computational horsepower and broad civic participation, the model of volunteer distributed computing represents a pragmatic fusion of public engagement and research acceleration. By clearly outlining how non-expert contributors can support complex biomedical and humanitarian inquiries, this piece not only informs but also demystifies a technical process - making participation accessible to a wide audience. The transparent explanation of projects and outcomes underscores the tangible impact that collective computing can have on pressing global health issues - Disabled World (DW).

Ian C. Langtree Author Credentials: Ian is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Disabled World, a leading resource for news and information on disability issues. With a global perspective shaped by years of travel and lived experience, Ian is a committed proponent of the Social Model of Disability-a transformative framework developed by disabled activists in the 1970s that emphasizes dismantling societal barriers rather than focusing solely on individual impairments. His work reflects a deep commitment to disability rights, accessibility, and social inclusion. To learn more about Ian's background, expertise, and accomplishments, visit his full biography.