Helping Coronavirus Research With Folding @ Home
When I worked at Maximum PC , we were really into folding . We had a huge team of editors, readers, and computers involved in a Stanford University project that takes unused resources from your system and directs them to folding proteins . Your system joins a distributed computing network that handles computation for researchers, giving them insights into how to treat diseases such as cancer, Parkinson’s, and now COVID-19.
It’s easy to get started. Download the Folding @ Home client for Windows, macOS, or Linux and install it on a system you regularly use. Run the app and it will open a website where you choose whether you want to fold proteins anonymously or have a handle associated with your efforts. (Strive for fame. Choose the latter.)
Here you can choose whether you want to join the team or not. I recommend finding one because it is fun to do in collaboration with a lot of other people.
That’s all you need to do to get started. By default, your efforts at Folding @ Home will focus on “any disease” that repeats in work related to the virus that causes COVID-19. As director Greg Bowman writes :
“One protein from 2019-nCoV, a protease encoded by viral RNA, has already crystallized. Although the 2019-nCoV spike protein of interest has not yet been resolved as associated with ACE2, our goal is to use the homologous structure of the SARS-CoV spike protein to identify therapeutic antibody targets. ”
Fun! Remember, you can close the Folding @ Home website if you want; your system will continue to run in the background until you stop the associated application. However, before closing this site, I recommend adjusting the amount of power you want your system to use to fold (in case it starts to sound like a jet engine) and whether you want your calculations to be done whenever you are working or only when your system is idle – and, apparently, you are not at your desktop.
If you want to have a little more control over your customization, you can use the app icon to open its advanced controls, which let you customize whether you want the minimization to continue if your system switches to battery power, as well as a host of other settings. expert level if you really want to get the most out of your home setup.
Remember, Folding @ Home is going to use up your system’s resources, which could affect the longevity of your components (and the size of your electricity bill), depending on how dedicated you are with folding proteins. You do a great job helping, but don’t go crazy.