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own folding result
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:42 am
by beer
Hi
I was asked about who own the result of folding@home and who can use the result.
The person who asked think that we, us folders, only save some bio companys a lot of money on buying hardware for folding@home and on electricity.
I dont kwow what to say to that kind of skeptic. Any comment or links?
Re: own folding result
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 1:46 pm
by 7im
All of the scientific research is published in peer reviewed papers. See the Results link on the fah web page. And the raw data is available upon request to any researcher or drug company who wants it.
So, yes, in a way, we are lowering the cost of finding a cure for Cancer, or Alzheimers, etc. But we like to think that we sped up the finding of those cures by many many years, saving countless lives. Is that so bad?
Remember, 1 in 4 people die from cancer, 1 in 5 get Alzheimers. Look around at your family. The life you save by folding could be you or your own...
Re: own folding result
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:21 pm
by verlyol
One thing is sure, the results of simulations of folding@home help advance research in very high speed !!
The proper question is how such research would be possible without folding@home ?
A good example is the discovery of the team of Prof. Garcia on IL-2 protein.
Computing power of folding@home helped to understand the mechanism of this protein in the treatment of certain cancers.
Is that the results would have been possible as quickly without the simulated folding@home ? Personally i do not think it would have been possible or at least not as quickly !
Re: own folding result
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:50 pm
by bruce
beer wrote:Hi
I was asked about who own the result of folding@home and who can use the result.
The person who asked think that we, us folders, only save some bio companys a lot of money on buying hardware for folding@home and on electricity.
I dont kwow what to say to that kind of skeptic. Any comment or links?
This is a very valid question. From what I understand, there are other DC projects which are essentially owned by a drug company and the results become trade secrets. FAH's research belongs to Stanford University and has already been said, are placed in the public domain for anyone to use.