New software is used to investigate Covid-19
More than a million volunteers from around the world are running the system on their computers
Stanford University has been working for more than twenty years on the developing software that can be used for the research on Covid-19, which is integrated into laboratory teams around the world through a distributed computing platform on any computer.
It is not necessary to be a scientist or have extensive knowledge on the subject. It only takes a computer to join the community of researchers working against the clock and discover the secrets of the virus.
The platform used, called Folding @ Home, has been of great help for the investigation of cancer, Ebola, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or Huntington’s disease.
Anton Thynell, Project Communications and Collaborations Manager, explains: “We realized that we could do a great service by simulating the dynamic movements of these proteins, to advance basic research and drug development efforts.”
Before the pandemic, the platform had a record of “1.3 million registered users, with about 30,000 or 60,000 active users, depending on the month,” says Thynell, assuring that last Tuesday the platform registered active users in “Japan , Australia, China, South Korea, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Canada, Iceland, South Africa and many more ”.
K.Villarroel
Source: elpais
