IBM is to help find effective treatment for dengue fever in collaboration with University of Texas and University of Chicago.
The project, ‘Discovering Dengue Drugs–Together’ would use the computational research power of World Community Grid to find best combinations of drug molecules for dengue, West Nile encephalitis, yellow fever and Hepatitis C.
Once these commbinations were identified, researchers could test the drugs to determine their effectiveness, a statement from the industry major said.
Commenting on the initiative, Maharaj Kishan Bhan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Union Ministry of Science and Technology, said the World Community Grid was a good step in treating viral diseases such as dengue which were causing serious concern.
“Continued research and global collaboration is needed so that scientists can better understand these viruses and then develop treatments that could save many lives”.
The project needed 50,000 years of computational power and on the World Community grid, it was expected to be completed in around one year.
In the first phase of the project, the proteins that enable the virus to replicate will be identified and matched against a database of six million drug molecules that might inhibit the replication, the statement said.
In the second phase, analysis will be carried out to find which drug molecules actually bind tightly to the protein, inhibiting replication.
Several dozens of molecules might be identified through the analysis. Laboratory testing on these molecules could be done in the next phase of drug development.
According to Daniel Dias, Director, IBM India Research Laboratory, anyone with computer and internet access could contribute to the project by donating ?unused computer cycle time? and thus reducing the time required to complete the calculations.
“If 1, 00,000 volunteers sign up within the first week for this project, it could reduce the time required to complete the calculations by 50 per cent”, he said.
World Community Grid, the largest public humanitarian grid, has over 3.15 lakh members and is used in more than seven lakh devices. Seven projects, including a HIV/AIDS research programme, have been run on the grid. Many more projects were in the pipeline, he said.