The United Devices Cancer Research Project, which began in 2001, is seeking possible drugs for the treatment of cancer using distributed computer power. 140,000 users in the United States and 158,000 in Europe participate in the project.

The projects is an alliance of several companies and organisations

• United Devices Inc.
• National Foundation for Cancer Research
• University of Oxford Department of Chemistry
• Intel (no longer participating)
• Microsoft (no longer participating)
• Donors of molecular research

United Devices released the cancer research screensaver under the principle of utilising spare computing power. The program, which can also be set to run continually, uses "virtual screening" to find possible interactions between molecules and target proteins, i.e. a drug. These molecules (ligands) are sent to the host computer's UD Agent. This agent uses the "LigandFit" software developed by Accelrys to model interactions. When these molecules dock sucsessfully with a target protein this interaction is scored for further investigation.

Stage 1 has been completed and Stage 2 is underway. In the first stage over 3 billion drug-like molecules were tested against 12 proteins which are known as suitable targets for anti-cancer drugs. Phase 2, using the LigandFit software, seeks to refine the Phase 1 data to produce a more manageable list of drug candidates for testing which will require experimental collaborators including some from industry.

Recently UD has launched research projects for diseases caused by biological terrorism, anthrax and smallpox. Once downloaded the UD Agent can be configured to participate in any of these projects.

Links

• BBC News report
• Grid.org
  • Download cancer project
• The National Foundation for Cancer Research
• United Devices Inc.
• Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford