Understand protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases.
- Folding@Home
- Version :7.4.4
- License :GPL
- OS :Windows All
- Publisher :Stanford University
Folding@Home Description
Folding@Home is a distributed computing project which studies protein folding, misfolding, aggregation, and related diseases. We use novel computational methods and large scale distributed computing, to simulate timescales thousands to millions of times longer than previously achieved. This has allowed us to simulate folding for the first time, and to now direct our approach to examine folding related disease.
What are proteins and why do they “fold”? Proteins are biology’s workhorses — its “nanomachines.” Before proteins can carry out their biochemical function, they remarkably assemble themselves, or “fold.” The process of protein folding, while critical and fundamental to virtually all of biology, remains a mystery. Moreover, perhaps not
surprisingly, when proteins do not fold correctly (i.e. “misfold”), there can be serious effects, including many well known diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, and Parkinson’s disease.
You can help the project by downloading and running the application. The algorithms are designed such that for every computer that joins the project, a commensurate increase in simulation speed is achieved.
System requirements
- A Pentium 3 450 MHz or newer equivalent computer (with SSE)