General Information : What is Folding@Home?
"Our goal: to understand protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases"
Folding@Home is one of the highest profile distributed computing projects around, and is arguably the most rewarding to contribute to. Distributed computing, in its simplest terms, means thousands of individual computers coming together to do the same job as a supercomputer – process really fast. Each computer does a small part, and by adding all those parts together, you are left with a huge net result. The internet has made this all possible, and with distributed computing there is the potential to out-perform even the fastest supercomputers in the world – it’s that powerful a resource.
Thousands of computers around the world work on
simulations, then send the results back across the internet
Folding, where the project name came from, is the biological process of proteins changing shape to serve its purpose. Now whilst the theory behind it is complicated, the results of folding going wrong is plain for everyone to see – mis-folding results in serious diseases, including cancer, to develop. By using computers to simulate the proteins doing what they do, scientists can better understand why mis-folding takes place, and potentially develop cures. That’s why this work is so important.
Folding@Home has been the brainchild of Professor Vijay S. Pande from Stanford University’s Chemistry department, and he has received numerous awards for the work he has done in developing this project. At present his work has attracted over 1 million cpu's to donate to the project, mostly through word of mouth and the efforts of people such as the creators of this thread. And this number is rapidly growing day by day. The future for distrubuted computing is looking very bright.
What can I do to help?
Simple. Follow the instructions in the next section to download and install the software, and donate your computer to help in this vital research. Please, most of us know someone who's suffering from a disease related to protein mis-folding. If you can help, please do.
How will using my pc be affected?
In terms of
performance, the software only works when you are not doing other things on your PC. In other words,
performance will not suffer. This is achieved by the program running on a very low-priority. Rest assured that your actions will not be in vain. You will be giving to a cause well worth your time because one day, what you have helped create could help you back.
For more in-depth information, visit:
I would also recommend the following if you wish to know more about individual projects and the amount of points that they carry:
