Science Node: Computing for a cure
Some researchers believe computational simulations can give us enough understanding of the processes that occur within a cell that—through computational biology—we could beat cancer.
The technical architects behind The Supercomputer for Cancer Research (aka the Cancer Computer) definitely believe a cure for cancer will be found with computers.
“The mission of Cancer Computer is to help accelerate the cure for cancer,” says Roy Chartier, founder and chief technology officer of the organization. “We make computing resources, made possible through donations and corporate goodwill, available to research projects, such as those served by the Open Science Grid.”
Cancer Computer recently partnered with OSG to make available 1,157,122 core hours per year for like-minded researchers such as the Indiana University Medical School’s Structural Protein-Ligand Interactome (SPLInter) project and Harvard Medical School’s Structural Biology Grid (SBGrid) Science Portal. SBGrid supports the Deformable Elastic Network and the Wide-Search Molecular Replacement.
“We believe that finding the cure for cancer is perhaps the greatest challenge that civilization faces at this time,” says Chartier. “Computers will cure cancer, and the sooner we apply as many compute resources as we can, the sooner we can advance our understanding of this disease that affects us all, in some way, during our lives. That’s why we’re ‘computing for the cure.
