Why should you join?
The computational power of graphics hardware is much higher than standard processor due to the large amount of calculations which are required to display realistic three-dimensional images.
This is achieved by a design and programming style change (see CUDA). A conventional processor dedicates a relatively large fraction of its transistors to complex control logic, to maximise performance of a serial code. The Cell processor contains 8 fast Synergetic Processing Elements (SPEs) designed to maximise arithmetic throughput. Graphical processing units (GPUs) devices have a very large number of slower cores maximizing parallel throughput.
For example, just ten thousand volunteers provides the computational power of the largest supercomputer on the planet for certain specific applications.
Experiments
Molecular simulations of the SH2 and ligand peptide binding affinity
The SH2 is a protein domain involved in protein-protein interactions. This particular domain plays a major role in cell communication on the sigalling processes for cell growth and development. Therefore its functional study becomes of great interest for cancer research, as by definition cancer is due to a malignous and abnormal cellular growth.
By designing new methods to determine binding affinities between such peptides, we will be able to study and predict its interactions a lot faster and cheaper before great amounts of money and time are spent in 'wet labs'.
We are now gradually giving workunits that compute these binding affinities ony for GPU clients.
Molecular simulations of Triose Phospate Isomerase (TPI) enzymes
This workunit investigates the conformational differences that arise when TPI enzymes undergo tyrosine nitration as a consequence of inflammation, defective mithocondrial respiration and oxydative stress. Workunits last around one day and must completed before 4 days.
Forward-Reverse Steered Molecular Dynamics
Potassium ion permeation in Gramicidin A We are giving workunits comprising full-atom simulations of gramidicin A for ion transport, a total of 30,000 atoms. Each workunit lasts less than one day and you have to complete it before 4 days. Movie.
About Molecular Dynamics
From Wikipedia:
Molecular dynamics (MD) is a form of computer simulation in which atoms and molecules are allowed to interact for a period of time by approximations of known physics, giving a view of the motion of the atoms. Because molecular systems generally consist of a vast number of particles, it is impossible to find the properties of such complex systems analytically; MD simulation circumvents this problem by using numerical methods. It represents an interface between laboratory experiments and theory, and can be understood as a "virtual experiment". MD probes the relationship between molecular structure, movement and function. Molecular dynamics is a multidisciplinary method. Its laws and theories stem from mathematics, physics, and chemistry, and it employs algorithms from computer science and information theory. It was originally conceived within theoretical physics in the late 1950s, but is applied today mostly in materials science and biomolecules. (Read more)
