Folding Forum

I have a computer with quadro 2000 and i7 2600 that have been folding for around 3 month (nearly non stop). So far I have folded
210 WU related to Alzheimer
61 WU related to general sciences
217 WU related to influenza 
34 WU related to Hiv
6 WU that I dont know about 
For a complete list over WU see:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/50652549/folding.ods

When looking at folding@home homepage http://folding.stanford.edu/ I read "You can help scientists studying Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and many cancers by simply running a piece of software on your computer or game console." I am just wondering if it is normal to receive that many influenza  WU?

Yeah, it's normal. Almost all SMP abd bigadv WU's are related to the flu/viruses

So if I want to help more with old mens disease (Alzheimer's, Huntington, diabetes 2) would it help if I switch to CPU instead of SMP?

As much as I would like to see cancer research instead of some of these other diseases, I would advise you to keep folding with what you can. This project is shared by many different research labs, and the influenza WUs all come from Dr. Kasson's lab in the University of Virginia. I've seen some threads before about people that are trying to focus on specific diseases like your describing but AFAIK there's no way of reliably doing that. Also, I think there's reason to believe that the knowledge gained from these influenza studies could have an impact in stopping other viruses such as HIV. They have some similar aspects after all. As projects are finished off and others are introduced, you might see the focus change. I would advise that you keep on using SMP. Although all clients are valued in their own sense, the SMP does a lot more science anyway compared to a uniprocessor.

I agree with Jesse_V, keep folding with the SMP client. Flu research migh not be imporatnt you, but running that client will give much more results in the long term than the CPU client will. Don't forget to check out GPU folding as well

I will continue with SMP folding on that mashine. But for my point of view is the GPU folding on that mashine for the last 3 month has done the interesting part (fundamental research/fundamental research and Alzheimer), since I can avoid HIV and my body can tackle influenza just fine.

The flu and HIV aren't the only viruses out there...
The normal flu is no problem for us, but what if it somehow affects your heart? It's very rare; but it happens! (I don't know exactly how, there are people out here who have much more knowledge than me). What if next year a global pandemic breaks out?

What if your wife of 10 years cheats on you with someone who's got HIV, and she passes it on to you? What if you have sex without a condom while you're drunk?

These are all situations I never wish to happen But you never know suchs horrible events can take place.

Let's not forget they are studying all influenza, not just the common seasonal stuff, but also the Pandemic mass killer kinds as well. We never know when the next Spanish Flu might spread throughout the world and kill 1 in 5 people. Just my opinion, but I think we dodged a bullet in 2009 when that Swine Flu variant spread world wide.

25 million died - Spanish Flu (1918–1920)
Estimated 2 million died - Asian Flu (1957–1958)
1 million died - Hong Kong Flu (1968–1969)
~800 died - 2009 Flu Pandemic (2009-2010)

And why did we not experience a pandemic with that flu scare? There have been numerous studies on this, and I've read that it has to do with which membrane receptors the virus binds to, and how tightly it binds to them. Binding affinity is difficult to determine experimentally, and previous simulation efforts are approximate since they're limited in power. Folding@home's vast network allows for more accurate models, which can then be used to determine the actual threat a virus has and then figure out how to prevent it from entering the cell. It's not just influenza. There are many different viruses out there, many of which are devestating or deadly. Fold on I say.

#JonazzDJ As far as I know I can get HIV from 2 places. Either have unprotected sex with a person that have it or get blood transfered from one. I dont have any sex since I dont wonna have children and the danish hospitals are good in checking the blood before given it to ther people. So the likelyhood is small for mu case

#7im If one live healty (get enough exercise, do prober Hygiene, and eat proper) I think the likelyhood of dieing from flu is small and those who die is often old weak people. I think, on a world scale, that people do live more healty that 50 years ago and that could be a reason why so few people are dying from a flu.

Some statestic from Denmark about why we die: http://www.denstoredanske.dk/Krop,_psyk ... %C3%A5rsag (one of the biggest encyclopedia in denmark)
cardiovascular disease (around 30 %)
Cancer (nearly 30%)
Smoking Lungs (black lungs becouse of smoking) 10 %
accidents (4 %)

if someone want to se the acully numbers from 1996-2005 look
http://www.dst.dk/da/TilSalg/Forsknings ... dsars.aspx (Statistics Denmark)
Flu is not even mention (but 3 different cancers are)

I am not saying that flu is not important. I am just trying to get some perspective

beer wrote:#JonazzDJ As far as I know I can get HIV from 2 places. Either have unprotected sex with a person that have it or get blood transfered from one. I dont have any sex since I dont wonna have children and the danish hospitals are good in checking the blood before given it to ther people. So the likelyhood is small for mu case

Are you sure you're healthy?

Anyways, keep on folding. Like Jesse_V said, Kasson's research focusses on viruses, the flu is the model they're using.

I completely agree with wanting to have a well informed perspective.

Rest assured fah research is cummulative... Everything they learn helps everything else being studied.

I also agree with the principle that Fah research are cumulative and each discovery is good for all problems studied. More specifically about simulations has influenza, the last years we have known variations and mutations very dangerous to humans (like H1N1). It is therefore important to understand the mechanisms of infection in order to effectively treat one day a new pandemic.

From my point of view, i see Fah as a global project with many interactions.

Beer ,

Just FYI,

The 1918 Flu killed young healthy people at a much higher rate than older people.
People often died quite quickly, actually drowning from the lungs reaction to the Pneumonia like symptoms.

One theory is that people with healthy immune systems were more like to "over-react".

Anyway, that is one of the reasons that "new" flu out-breaks are so intensively studied.
We know how to deal with the run of the mill kind...it is the unique ones that we need to understand quickly, before they get out of hand.

I just watch a "new" movie called Contagion witch is about a new flu. It should Scientific accuracy. Some linkes:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598778/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contagion_(film)

Maybe some inspiration for folding for Flu related proteins