Help Scientists Cure Cancer with your PC! - Folding @ Home

[lvh1]

I guess it's nice when electricity is cheap. It's a bit too expensive here to have this software run in the background every day unfortunately. 

[Thermosman]

when I click start folding in the web client nothing happens - no gpu/cpu load, no work project etc

[Guest]

(Just a reminder that everyone wins when it comes to fighting the good fight. We are a folding team.)

[azmariadei]

I've added my humble system to the mix! Yes, i'm running an i7 8086k with a 2GB 1050... I needed processor power so I used my old video card.

 

As for this giveaway, thank you LTT - as someone with brain tumors that could go cancerous at any time, this is the kind of competition I appreciate and would love to see a ton of mining rigs repurposed for.

[CPBuchholz]

Just started! Damn she's dusty lol. i7-7700k and a GTX 1080. Built around March of last year. I also told all my friends on facebook so hopefully a few of them will join in also!

[Mytre]

 

and the gaming rig :

 

 

Using dem cores, I no longer run my 4ghz overclock due to my fan control  just going crazy, look at those 50% rpms , even though is set up to cool at more speed at that temperatures

 

 

[Gix7Fifty]

Hope this helps!

 

[Thermosman]

Mines stuck at this and I don't know how to fix it.

[Dissitesuxba11s]

3 minutes ago, Thermosman said:

Mines stuck at this and I don't know how to fix it.

Go to the hidden icons on the taskbar, right click the Folding icon and press Advanced Control. See if you can restart it there.

[Klasher1000]

This is such a great way to get people involved, not to mention it's super simple to setup!

[Invaderzim117]

6850k, two 1080's, and a Vega 56 with a Vega 64 bios all cooking. Too ashamed of my cable management to show a picture of my rig just yet though

[Guest]

Very cool to see this. Folding at home is used to predict the folding of proteins to verify the correct conformation. Not really quite useful in Immunobiology just yet, but is used for understanding drugs on a molecular level and prediction of the structure is important in identifying domains and motifs to understand the mechanism of the drug. More for Biochemistry rather than curing a disease. Distributed computing has a more supportive role in assisting researchers, rather than a primary means of proteins structure identification - it's quite niche and don't expect your computer do be working on the cure for cancer or something. 

[Speed Weed]

Can someone explain how this will help scientist develop cancer cure if it just doing crunchy numbers???? 

[TetraSky]

Tried it for about 30 minutes, saw my CPU reach abnormally high temperature, even when I tried lowering the CPU usage to 50%. So I guess my hardware just isn't fit for this kind of task. (My CPU start thermal throttling at around 73˚C, which it was reaching)
I'd basically need to invest in a God damn chiller to cool this thing, an H80 isn't enough. (Either that or it's just so old the "liquid" inside is evaporated and barely functional anymore...)

 

Even though I can play games and have the CPU barely reach 60˚C...

That and really, seeing what the "competition" has in term of hardware, forget top100, I wouldn't even qualify in the top1000.

[leadeater]

3 minutes ago, Invaderzim117 said:

Too ashamed of my cable management to show a picture of my rig just yet though

Mines worse, I also haven't bothered to put any of the side panels on in 2 years either.

[Dissitesuxba11s]

1 minute ago, Speed Weed said:

Can someone explain how this will help scientist develop cancer cure if it just doing crunchy numbers???? 

See @RorzNZ comment that's above yours:

4 minutes ago, RorzNZ said:

Very cool to see this. Folding at home is used to predict the folding of proteins to verify the correct conformation. Not really quite useful in Immunobiology just yet, but is used for understanding drugs on a molecular level and prediction of the structure is important in identifying domains and motifs to understand the mechanism of the drug. More for Biochemistry rather than curing a disease. Distributed computing has a more supportive role in assisting researchers, rather than a primary means of proteins structure identification - it's quite niche and don't expect your computer do be working on the cure for cancer or something. 

 

[captain_to_fire]

Just now, RorzNZ said:

Very cool to see this. Folding at home is used to predict the folding of proteins to verify the correct conformation

Well it helps in understanding diseases that has something to do with misfolded proteins. Example of which is alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency among white people where it compromises both the lungs and the liver. Misfolded proteins aggregate inside the hepatocytes that in turn cause cirrhosis. 

 

4 minutes ago, RorzNZ said:

rather than a primary means of proteins structure identification - it's quite niche and don't expect your computer do be working on the cure for cancer or something. 

I only folded once and I think F@H is more of predicting supersecondary, tertiary and quaternary structures of proteins. In order to ID primary structure, one needs to do sequencing either through a machine or through the likes of CNBr, enzymatic digestion, etc.

[seon123]

Why is this thing not working? First, it's like the thing in the first picture. Clicking the "Fold" button does absolutely nothing. When the next attempt counter hits 0, it's stuck like the second picture, doing nothing. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling it several times. Also, after right clicking the icon in the tray, it takes ages for the menu thing to show up. The web application in Chrome works, but only for the CPU.

Spoiler

 

 

Edit: Once it finally gets unstuck from the thing in the second picture, the cycle repeats. Under logs, I find this. Is this normal?

Spoiler

 

[mylorik]

my first step into the fight with cancer. Unfortunately, my mother lost her fight 2 yrs ago.

[GDRRiley]

dam this makes me want to toss in my 970 and cus I now got very little time to game, fold away.

[leadeater]

1 minute ago, GDRRiley said:

dam this makes me want to toss in my 970 and cus I now got very little time to game, fold away.

Yea, I haven't been able to play any games all day. *Looks at PS4 and PS3* Maybe.....

[edenwax]

Let's get folding!
 

[Murford]

Started folding last week on my desktop. Even added my old rx 480 back to it to fold along with my gtx 1080. Now I've also got it set up on my laptop for a few extra thousand points a day. 

[GDRRiley]

5 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Yea, I haven't been able to play any games all day. *Looks at PS4 and PS3* Maybe.....

I have some the last few but now that I got a GF goodbye free time. 

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

Well it helps in understanding diseases that has something to do with misfolded proteins. Example of which is alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency among white people where it compromises both the lungs and the liver. Misfolded proteins aggregate inside the hepatocytes that in turn cause cirrhosis. 

Pathology is more useful - understanding the mechanisms is more important than understanding the misfolded proteins. If we know why they are there in the first place, that is where the correct therapies lie. 

16 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

I only folded once and I think F@H is more of predicting supersecondary, tertiary and quaternary structures of proteins. In order to ID primary structure, one needs to do sequencing either through a machine or through the likes of CNBr, enzymatic digestion, etc.

That would be a different algorithm(s). Each of those structures needs a different algorithm applied to predict the structures. It is only the folding of the protein to visualise its true (note - we don't need to know its true structure to solve its function) structure that is exceptionally difficult. Solving for secondary, tertiary and quaternary structures can be done using tools such as RASMOL. Observing the folding of proteins is exceptionally difficult and is hard to predict, which is why the computing power is necessary. This is more of a supportive tool for biochemists - remember it quite literally is Folding@Home.

29 minutes ago, Speed Weed said:

Can someone explain how this will help scientist develop cancer cure if it just doing crunchy numbers???? 

In order to design a drug that is capable of targeting a specific protein, for instance the notable case of using folding at home where they designed a drug to inhibit B-amyloid aggregation - B-amyloid plaques are a result of B-amyloid accumulation. For a background the aggregation is caused by a genetic deficiency on chromosome 21 that causes an abnormal B-amyloid precursor to form, the precursor is normally cleaved at one place in the ER, however due to the abnormal precursor is cleaved in two places. This results in a B-amyloid protein formation that cannot be digested and condense into B-pleated fibrils which form the B-amyloid plaques. The scientists engineered a different B-amyloid protein with a specific peptide (With information from a simulation of the folding from Folding@Home) which folds in a different pattern, and does not allow the proteins to form the fibrils, leading to a lack of ability to aggregate. It is this aggregation of the protein that exhibits then inflammatory response to induce the pathologies of Alzheimers. 

 

So Folding@Home is really meant for engineered drug design, which I'm not really a fan of for treatments of cancer. Drugs are pretty cool and all as well, but gene therapies and immunotherapies are a much more effective way for treating such diseases - not to say that effective treatments should not be looked at in all areas, especially for Huntington's Disease. The world has gotten pretty comfortable with palliative care, and it's a shame to see that.