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International Effort to Fight SARS Sets New Ground: Over 50,000
Computers From 93 Countries Come Together to Combat SARS
GUILFORD, Conn., Sep 18, 2003 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ --
The Rothberg Institute for
Childhood Diseases (TRI), a non-profit research institute devoted to
discovering drugs for orphan childhood diseases such as Tuberous Sclerosis
Complex (TSC), has released Version 2.0 of the Drug Design and Optimization
Laboratory (D2OL) Software developed at Sengent, Inc. D2OL is based on
Sengent's CommunityOS(TM), a grid computing program that harnesses idle time
on volunteer computers from the online community to create a "supercomputer".
This system is capable of using chemical docking algorithms and statistical
models to rapidly test potential drugs to cure orphan childhood diseases and
fight emerging pathogens. D2OL Version 2.0 was designed for increased
stability and reliability of the client-server system, improved client-server
communications, decreased bandwidth requirements, and increased user capacity.
Additionally, D2OL Version 2.0 will allow continued upgrades to the software
without disrupting client usage.
TRI supports two projects that utilize D2OL: the Bio-terrorism/Emerging
Pathogens project that runs on 51,297 computers in 93 countries; and the
CommunityTSC project that runs on 17,160 computers in 58 countries. Growth
spurts experienced after the addition of SARS targets to the Bio-
terrorism/emerging pathogens project prompted the development of a system
which can accommodate in excess of a million users worldwide. The new
software will be available for download by users of both projects on Thursday
September 18th 2003.
The purpose of the Bio-terrorism/Emerging Pathogens project is to target
critical proteins of disease-causing microbes, such as SARS and anthrax, for
virtual compound screening. The CommunityTSC project uses TSC-relevant
proteins identified by sponsored collaborators at Harvard, Yale, and Fox Chase
Cancer Center as drug targets for computational screening. The targets are
screened against all commercially available drug-like chemical entities (an
estimated 2.5 million potential drugs) to prioritize the compounds to be
tested in the laboratory both at TRI and collaborating academic institutions
worldwide. Since the start of this project, the first drug trial specifically
designed to help children with TSC was initiated. We hope that this drug will
serve as a model for testing drugs derived from the efforts of those engaged
in the Community TSC project.
Version 2.0 was designed with the user in mind. For eighteen months the
support staff at TRI has collected and compiled a wish list from users and
took the most frequently requested features and incorporated them into the new
version. The new version is more robust and gives the users greater control
over the communication with the servers located at TRI. The most frequent
request was an increased number of work units for the power-users in the
community. We are pleased to announce that the maximum number of work units
has increased twenty fold to satisfy even the fastest nodes on our network.
The Drug Design and Optimization Lab was established in November of 2001
to expedite and lower the cost of identifying drugs capable of addressing
general health issues. The software was first applied to targets of potential
bio-warfare/terrorism agents, specifically, to druggable targets of the SARS
Virus in May of 2003. TRI first applied D2OL to find a cure for TSC in April
of 2002.
The latest Version of D2OL used in the fight against TSC is available at:
www.childhooddiseases.org.
The latest Version of D2OL used in the fight against emerging pathogens
such as SARS, anthrax and smallpox is available at:
www.d2ol.com.
SOURCE The Rothberg Institute for Childhood Diseases
Janet E. Verney, Director of Operations, The Rothberg Institute for Childhood Diseases, +1-203-458-7100, fax, +1-203-458-2514
http://www.childhooddiseases.org
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