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Page 7A • Thursday, February 6, 2003
Computers unite to find smallpox vaccine
Staff and Wire
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SAN FRANCISCO — In a virtual search for a
needle in a haystack, a coalition of scientists and
technology companies will try to make headway
on a smallpox cure using computer screen savers
of volunteers who download the program.
The project aims to use the idle processing
power of up to 2 million personal computers to sift
through millions of molecular combinations in
hopes of finding one that fights smallpox after
infection.
Though smallpox vaccinations exist, there is
no known cure for the disease once a person is
infected with it.
Volunteers download a screen saver from
www.grid.org that runs whenever their computers
have resources to spare. When the user connects to
the Internet, the computer sends data back to a
central hub and gets another assignment.
Researchers said the combined power of 2 mil
lion personal computers is 30 times greater than
the fastest supercomputer - topping out at an esti
mated 1,100 teraflops, or a trillion calculations per
second. In a few months, they hope to wittle 35
million readily available compounds down to
about 300,000 candidates, ranked from best to
worst in order of relevancy.
The compounds will be used on nine different
models of potential smallpox strains that represent
variations of the virus.
Participants in the project •
will receive one or more of
these molecular structures in a
downloaded packet that are
then combined with the test
models of potential vaccines.
Tom Hawk, general manag
er of Grid computing at IBM,
sees the new grid technology
as a breakthrough in chemical
research, especially in the field
of biology.
“Grid computing is poised
to launch a revolution in busi
nesses, with life sciences
being one of the key areas that
will benefit through faster and
more efficient drug modeling
and development,” Hawk said
in IBM’s press release.
After receiving data from
the research grid, scientists
will break out the test tubes
and petri dishes to experiment
on the top 50 or so candidates
— though even then, a potential cure is still years
away. Results will be turned over to the
Department of Defense, which did not return tele
phone calls seeking comment.
The United Devices Metaprocessor
Computers worldwide process information while idle
Totals
Members
Devices
Total processing
time logged
Results returned
949,782
~ 2 million
192,770 years
~ 176 million
Averages
Processing time
per day
Time per result
Results per day
225 years
9.5 hours
205,694
Source: www.grid.org
Ruben DeLuna • THE BATTALION
Disease researchers are increasingly turning to
computers to help identify promising disease
fighting agents, which can then be used in animal
and human experiments.
“Bioterrorism agents are funny animals
because you can’t test them on people,” said
Edward Hubbard, chief executive of Austin-
based United Devices, which designed the
smallpox grid program, among others.
The project' was launched Wednesday with
funding by United Devices Inc., IBM Corp., and
Pharmacopeia Inc. subsidiary Accelrys of San
Diego. North American researchers at the
Robarts Research Institute, The University of
Western Ontario, and the Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center will be working with the data
provided by the project in conjunction with the
Essex and Oxford Universities in the United
Kingdom.
Many of the 35 million molecule models are
being provided by Oxford University, which has
led anthrax and cancer grid computing projects
of the same type.
United Devices assures project participants
that the process of collecting data is secure.
Virus scanning and digital signatures help pro
tect data while it is being transmitted, and bio
metric security devices guard servers on the
United Devices campus.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Volunteers to drive
drunk for study
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) —
Iowa drivers will soon do some
thing that would ordinarily be ill-
advised and illegal: Get behind
the wheel after guzzling vodka-
laced fruit juice.
The liquored-up motorists will
be drinking and driving in the
name of science.
Researchers will test their per
formance and reaction times in
the world’s most sophisticated
driving simulator.
“Believe it or not, there is still
alotwe don’t know about drunk
driving'' said Barbara Hafsha,
executive director of the
Governors Highway Safety
Association. “When we get the
studies and information we
need, we’ll have a better feel for
whether (the simulator) has been
worth it or not,” she said.
The simulator is owned by
the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration and run
by the University of Iowa. The
payoff for researchers — and
taxpayers who covered the
majority of the cost — is the
promise of reducing crashes
and deaths.
When the trials begin this
spring, more than 300 partici
pants will be tested.
Melanoma found in organ recipients
By Stephanie Nano
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP) -In an unusual case of
a transplanted organ causing
disease, two patients developed
melanoma from their new kid
neys even though the donor was
successfully treated for the can
cer many years earlier, Scottish
doctors report. One recipient
died and the other recovered.
The researchers suggest that
no one who has had melanoma
should ever be an organ donor.
Transfer of cancer from a
donated organ to a transplant
patient is rare, and the chances
of it occurring long after the
donor was treated were thought
to be extremely unlikely. The
longest known interval in a
donor-related melanoma was
eight years between the surgery
and transplant.
But in Thursday’s New
England Journal of Medicine,
researchers said two patients
got cancer from a donor who
had a melanoma skin lesion
removed 16 years earlier and
was thought to be cancer-free.
Melanoma cells had appar
ently been dormant in the
donor’s kidneys until the trans
plant, explained Dr. Rona M.
MacKie, who treated the recipi
ents. The cancer cells flour
ished because medicines given
to the patients to prevent rejec
tion of the transplants had sup
pressed their disease-fighting
immune systems.
“Anyone who’s had invasive
melanoma should not be a
transplant donor in the future,”
said MacKie of Scotland’s
Glasgow University.
The U.S. transplant net
work also strongly recom
mends against using organs
from donors with a history of
melanoma or a number of
other cancers, according to Dr.
H. Myron Kauffman, director
of the United Network for
Organ Sharing’s transplant
tumor registry.
Of the 125,000 transplants
done in the United States
between 1994 and 2001, there
were only 24 cases of donor-
related cancer, he said.
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