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On this page
you can find links to pages with global computing ...
- reviews
of projects
- projects
with biological significance in a broader sense
- project
examples with non-biological background
- commercial
companies
that try to earn money with the idea.
Reviews
of Global Computing Projects
If you look
for the latest news and lists of global computing projects,
the following review sites will help you.
Global
computing and
life sciences in a greater
sense
This list points
to existing global computing solutions for individual problems,
regardless whether the corresponding projects are still active
or not. It shall convey an impression about what global computing
can do to find out more about life.
Linear regression:
Sequence analysis:
- BLAST
and SIM4
are bioinformatics applications ported to United Devices
Metaprocessor platform. You can use them to perform sequence
matching analyses.
- TurboBLAST
is the BLAST version from Entropia
- Genetic
Research using HMMER
is a non-profit project powered by United Devices. It analyzed
DNA or protein sequences by Hidden Markov Modeling to find
hidden patterns that help investigate genetic diseases and
understand the human genome sequence better.
- Ubero
used genetic algorithms to align sequences in their first
project on their Java based platform
Protein structure
prediction:
- Folding@home
simulates the folding of proteins. Using the Cosm
platform this project tries to predict potential 3D structures
from sequences, an exceptionally hard computational problem.
- Genome@home
is the twin project of folding@home. It takes a known 3D
protein structure and constructs random sequences that are
predicted to fold the same way. Thus it will help make more
sense from the recent flood of genomic sequence data.
- Folderol
does similar things like folding@home and genome@home. It
also wants to look for functional associations of genes
in the human and other genomes.
- Distributed
folding tackles the same problem and is run by several
institutions.
- Parabon
Computing
also engages in simulating protein folding to understand
cancer cell behaviour better.
Docking drugs to
protein structures:
- Cancer
Research using THINK
is a non-profit project powered by United
Devices.
It checks millions of potential cancer drug molecules for
interactions with relevant proteins.
- In a similar
project, candidate drugs for Anthrax
are searched for by United
Devices.
- FightAIDS@Home
simulates molecular binding of potential HIV inhibitors
to potential HIV target proteins and many variations of
them. It uses the AutoDock suite on the Entropia
platform.
- Drug
Design Optimization Lab screens large databases for
oral drugs against Anthrax, Smallpox and Ebola.
- The CommunityTSC
project searches for drugs against the Tuberous Sclerosis
Complex.
- Find-a-Drug
is made by Treveren Consultants, the makers of THINK.
Other health care:
- PopularPower
allowed you to participate in a project that helps finding
vaccines against the influenza virus.
Individual-based
models in ecology and evolution:
- evolution@home
is the first global computing system in evolutionary biology.
It is being developed by evolutionary-research to
simulate evolutionary and ecological processes.
Artificial life
projects:
Environmental
research (terrestial and galactical):
- ClimatePrediction:
(Formerly Casino21) Will simulate global climate of the
21st century. This has ecological implications.
- SETI@home:
Search for Extra Terrestial Intelligence. Its about analyzing
signales from radio-telescopes to look for patterns that
might indicate communication between intelligent beings
in outer space. Although methods are not biological, any
conclusions have implications for the evolution of life
in general. This project is the largest up to date (>
1 million CPU years, > 3 million participants).
Some
other global computing projects
- iArchives
aimes at constructing a huge archive of all published information
and is developed by UnitedDevices
- The MetaNEOS
project
solved the nug30 quadratic assignment problem in 96000 CPU
hours on 1009 processors at eight institutions (Science,
28 July 2000, 289:503).
- GIMPS,
the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search that is looking
for the largest prime numbers. Powered by Entropia
- DistributedNet:
Devoted to breaking encryption keys.
- Gamma
flux
project by Peter Jansson: Simulate heat generated by decay
of nuclear fuel. This is interesting for nuclear waste disposal.
- MoneyBee
from Germany builds models from the financial world.
- Xpulsar@home
contributed to astronomical research and was the first global
computing project initiated in Germany. It has been completed.
See Kirk
Pearsons review site
for a comprehensive list, especially of the many mathematical
projects that exist.
Commercial
Global Computing Companies
If you want
to earn money with your idle PC check out the following sites,
but be not dissapointed if you don't become rich. Some of
the startups of the year 2000 have gone out of business already.
Missing?
Do you know
about a global distributed computing project that should be
listed here, especially if it is biologically relevant? Please
tell
evolutionary-research.
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