OpenPandemics COVID-19 World Community Grid Project

Ian C. Langtree - Writer/Editor for Disabled World (DW)
Published: 2020/05/23 - Updated: 2022/11/27
Topic: Medical Calculators and Charts - Publications List

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 Item

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.
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:

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 was born and grew up in Australia. Since then, he has traveled and lived in numerous locations and currently resides in Montreal, Canada. Ian is the founder, a writer, and editor in chief for Disabled World. Ian believes in the Social Model of Disability, a belief developed by disabled people in the 1970s. The social model changes the focus away from people's impairments and towards removing barriers that disabled people face daily. To learn more about Ian's background, expertise, and achievements, .

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Citing and References

Founded in 2004, Disabled World (DW) is a leading resource on disabilities, assistive technologies, and accessibility, supporting the disability community. Learn more on our About Us page.

Cite This Page: Disabled World. (2020, May 23 - Last revised: 2022, November 27). OpenPandemics COVID-19 World Community Grid Project. Disabled World (DW). Retrieved April 26, 2025 from www.disabled-world.com/calculators-charts/world-community-grid.php

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