Folding@Home Gets Off to a Big Start

The University of Stanford’s Folding@Home (FAH) project isn’t exactly new to the gaming industry radar. Way back in 2000, the joining of hundreds of thousands of PCs worldwide enabled biochemists and other researchers to perform protein folding simulations of a scale and complexity that would have otherwise been impossible.

As of last year, FAH has a new weapon to pursue an understanding of the thousands of proteins that are active in our bodies. They have been able to use the PS3’s uber-powerful Cell processor to bump the project’s capabilities to new heights. With only about 40,000 PS3’s, FAH would be able to achieve performance on the petaflopscale.

Sony has developed software to allow FAH to utilize the power of the Cell, and since its launch on March 22nd, over 35,000 PS3s (as of Sunday) are now participating in the simulations. If you’re a PS3 owner that wants to take part, select the Folding@Home icon on the Xross Media Bar (XMB). Don’t worry though, the computations won’t affect your gaming prowess; calculations are only performed when the system is idle, so put your expensive piece of equipment to excellent use, and help researchers hunt for the facts.

Who cares about protein folding? You should. Improper protein structures, which can mess with binding sites where the molecule attaches to or acts upon target substrates, is implicated in a wide range of human diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, and metabolic disorders. The list of papers to come out of the FAH program thus far is quite impressive, and now the harnessing of the Cell chip technology should enable scientists to delve even deeper into our molecular makeup.

Via | Next Gen