OpenPandemics COVID-19 World Community Grid Project
Ian C. Langtree - Writer/Editor for Disabled World (DW)
Published: 2020/05/23 - Updated: 2022/11/27
Category Topic: Medical Calculators and Charts - Academic Publications
Page Content: Synopsis - Introduction - Main
Synopsis: During idle times your computer can run COVID-19 experiments to help predict effectiveness of chemical compounds in inhibiting functions of viral proteins as a possible treatment for Coronavirus. OpenPandemics - COVID-19 is an 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.
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.
Join Team Disabled World and the OpenPandemics COVID-19 Project at World Community Grid which is helping researchers at Scripps Research look for potential COVID-19 treatments. We need your help!
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.
Join Team Disabled World and the OpenPandemics COVID-19 Project at World Community Grid which is helping researchers at Scripps Research look for potential COVID-19 treatments. We need your help!
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.
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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.