Welcome to- The Fountain Pen Community!

when I get my pc back this spring and not the one I'm borrowing. I'm in as well. I'd do it but this thing is barely making it online as it is.

I'll trust your judgment. i just signed up. Hope it can help some.

Here is some information about one of the projects.

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World Community Grid and researchers supported by Decrypthon, a partnership between AFM (French Muscular Dystrophy Association), CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research), Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, and IBM are investigating protein-protein interactions for more than 2,200 proteins whose structures are known, with particular focus on those proteins that play a role in neuromuscular diseases. The database of information produced will help researchers design molecules to inhibit or enhance binding of particular macromolecules, hopefully leading to better treatments for muscular dystrophy and other neuromuscular diseases.

What is neuromuscular disease and muscular dystrophy?
Neuromuscular disease is a generic term for a group of disorders (more than 200 in all) that impair muscle functioning either directly through muscle pathology (muscular dystrophy) or indirectly through nerve pathology. Most of them are rare (affecting less than one person in 2,000), have a genetic origin (80%) and affect both children and adults. These chronic diseases lead to a decrease in muscle strength, causing serious disabilities in motor functions (moving, breathing etc.). Disease expression is variable; some disorders are progressive, while others remain stable for several years, and the same disease can cause different symptoms from one person to the next.

Despite advances in therapeutic techniques, there is currently no curative treatment available for persons affected by neuromuscular diseases.

I'll try & help get the #'s in an upward motion. I dropped a link to this thread on my facebook page/status thing (still trying to get it down) and on twitter. Still wondering why I use it, looks likeI found a decent use this time. Probably the first real thing I've done with that dumb site.

I dont want this to come off as some cheezy way to draw eyes to the site. I think this is a serious cause & I'm amazed it's so simple to help. I mean come on, this is the BIG C & MD we're talkin' about here.

G'night all. I'm OUT!

Here is an update on the Phase I Influenza Antiviral Drug Search program straight from one of the researchers.

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It's official - Influenza Antiviral Drug Search - Phase 1 is done!

Similar to our related Discovering Dengue Drugs-Together project, all Phase 1 results that you have generated to help find new influenza antivirals are on our disk servers. They are being processed and double-checked. Thank you for your efforts and help!

Phase 1 is only the first step on our path to discovering new influenza drugs. Phase 1 has systematically tested ~3 million small "drug-like" molecules against 9 influenza neuraminidase strains (including Tamiflu-resistant and Relenza-resistant strains). These 27 million individual docking experiments were completed in ~5 months. Our 30-node high-performance cluster would have needed to run nonstop for 100 years to finish these calculations.

Phase 1 identified numerous that could potentially interact with each neuraminadase target. Typically, ~90-95% of Phase 1 hits turn out to be false positives when tested in the laboratory. Thus, Phase 1 hits are very inefficient to pursue with laboratory testing.

Influenza Antiviral Drug Search - Phase 2 is designed to reduce the number of Phase 1 false positives. In Phase 2, we will complete ~2000 computationally demanding free energy calculations for each protein target (each calculation uses a promising Phase 1 hit)s. These calculations will eliminate many of the Phase 1 false positives and produce refined hit lists that are expected to contain ~80% true positives. Testing Phase 2 hits in the laboratory will be much more productive, efficient, and rewarding than testing Phase 1 hits.

Beta testing is underway for Discovering Dengue Drugs Phase 2. The programs and workflow required for Influenza Antiviral Drug Search - Phase 2 are similar to the dengue project. Thus, Influenza Drug Search - Phase 2 should launch soon after Discovering Dengue Drugs - Phase 2 starts.

We look forward to your continued help and generosity as we work together to find new cures for influenza infections.

All my best, and many thanks!

Stan

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I'd like to add my congratulations to all of you that have joined in the effort.