IBM's World Community Grid and scientists are launching an international study to identify drug candidates to cure Zika, a fast-spreading virus the World Health Organisation has declared a global public health emergency.
The IBM World Community Grid is a platform that allows volunteers to donate their devices' spare computing power to help scientists solve the world's biggest problems in health and sustainability. As a World Community Grid volunteer, a user's device performs research calculations when it's idle, helping scientists identify promising areas to study in the lab, bringing them closer to life-saving discoveries.
IBM and a global team of scientists are inviting anyone with a computer or Android device to join the #OpenZika project. Volunteers don't need to provide time, expertise or money to help; they simply run an app on their Windows, Mac, Linux or Android devices that automatically performs virtual experiments for scientists whenever the machines are otherwise idle.
Through the OpenZika project, the World Community Grid will power virtual experiments on compounds that could form the basis of anti-viral drugs to cure the Zika virus, which has been linked to serious neurological disorders.
IBM notes that with dramatically more speed than possible in a traditional lab, the project will screen compounds from existing molecule databases against models of Zika protein and crystal structures. Screening results will quickly be shared with the research community and general public. Promising compounds would then be tested in the collaborators' laboratories.
"Enlisting the help of World Community Grid volunteers will enable us to computationally evaluate over 20 million compounds in just the initial phase and potentially up to 90 million compounds in future phases," says Carolina H Andrade, PhD, professor at the Federal University of Goi'as in Brazil and the lead researcher on the OpenZika project.
"Running the OpenZika project on the World Community Grid will allow us to greatly expand the scale of our project, and it will accelerate the rate at which we can obtain the results toward an antiviral drug for the Zika virus."
The need for a treatment is acute as warmer weather approaches North America, creating an environment more conducive to Zika-carrying mosquitoes, and as international travellers contract and transmit the virus.
IBM says other anti-viral research efforts also hold promise. For example, IBM Research and Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology announced they have identified a macromolecule that could help prevent deadly viral infections such as Zika.
Volunteers can support the OpenZika search for a cure by joining the World Community Grid. IBM also invites researchers to submit research project proposals to receive this free resource.
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