Tuesday, March 12, 2002

Distributed-Computing Project Identifies 12,000 Compounds That May Block Anthrax Infection By KATE GALBRAITH University of Oxford researchers who used distributed-computing software to identify molecules that could potentially treat anthrax submitted their results last week to the U.S. and British governments. Graham Richards, who is the chairman of Oxford's chemistry department and also the head of the research team, said: "What we have produced, out of our 3.5 billion tries, are 300,000 compounds that would bind in the correct site on the [anthrax] protein. About 12,000 look as though they would bind rather well, so that this would be a starting point to develop something which would block anthrax getting into cells." The initial phase of the project took less than four weeks to complete. It worked by enabling participants' computers to test models of the molecules while the computers -- some 1.4 million of them -- were otherwise idling. The computers used screen-saver software downloaded from a Web site. The goal was to find molecules that might inhibit the binding of the "protective antigen," one part of the anthrax protein, with the anthrax toxin -- a process that enables the toxin to enter into cells. In the next weeks or months, Mr. Richards says, the number of promising molecules will be further narrowed using mathematical methods. He adds, however, that building and testing the molecules will take "on the order of a couple of years." Mr. Richards and his colleagues are also using distributed computing to try to find potential cures for cancer. That project will last until April, when its financing runs out. The researcher would like to undertake more such projects, targeting either cancer or other diseases, like malaria or diabetes. "In principle, we could run this time and time again, and it's my belief that in future this [method] will become even more popular and common," says Mr. Richards. The limitation, however, is money, as distributed-computing projects cost around $200,000 per month. Background article from The Chronicle: Researchers Seek Volunteers for Computing Project to Study Anthrax (1/28/2002) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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