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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Completed Research
Forum: Discovering Dengue Drugs - Together
Thread: news from galveston |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 8
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
By posting in this forum you seem to imply there is a link with this lab, which is definately DoD linked - with all that implies - and 'our' contributions via WCG......the ultimate conspiracy theory is that we are working on bio weapons.......
----------------------------------------This is a definate no-no as far as WCG is concerned and any 'hint' of this could cause a mass exodus......IMHP.... [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Nov 6, 2008 10:10:01 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hi halfcard,
The biolab at IMB in Galveston is unconnected with our own medical research in DDDT. IMB is the major employer in Galveston and picks up all the federal funding it can get its hands on - basic empire building. Here is an old article about the biolab: http://www.technologyreview.com/business/14188/?a=f I'll put out my own personal opinions here. I have just been through an electoral season of listening to half-baked, wrong-headed opinions so I am ready to vent some of my own. I am not a biologist, so I may be totally off-base. You have been warned! Some years back biolab secure containment procedures were codified into Categories 1 - 4, with 1 being the easiest and 4 the most restrictive. Formally, these are called biosafety levels 1 - 4 (BSL 1 - 4). The CDC (Center for Disease Control) in Atlanta, GA, built the first BSL-4 lab. This seemed like a reasonable precaution to me, but I had second thoughts after it had operated for a while. The trouble is that the precautions are so extensive that it is very very difficult to do real research in them. Any research takes years longer and costs vastly more than in a BSL-3 lab, which is already difficult enough to do research in. To make things worse, there are no known organisms that require BSL-4 precautions to work with. BSL-3 successfully quarantines all known diseases. So a BSL-4 lab is a nearly useless precaution against a possible future unknown disease. If you are feeling paranoid, you might want to fund a second BSL-4 lab, just in case. Otherwise, it is a useless drain of funds and research personnel which should go to BSL-2 and BSL-3 research labs. The only way to justify BSL-4 labs is to administratively define some diseases that are contained by BSL-3 precautions as being so dangerous that they can only be studied in BSL-4 labs. This ensures that research on these diseases will proceed at a snail's pace while showing a hefty chunk of the federal budget being expended on medical research into these diseases. Sorry, but I just felt like getting that off my chest. Anyway, there is no relationship between the DDDT project and the Galveston BSL-4 lab except for geographical proximity. Lawrence |
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Rickjb
Veteran Cruncher Australia Joined: Sep 17, 2006 Post Count: 666 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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DDDT team leader Stanley J. Watowich, Ph.D., Associate Professor, sees a potential use for the BSL-4 labs in his work, but it is NOT for biological weapons:
http://www.hbcg.utmb.edu/faculty/watowich/ |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
hmm, some people have put more into this post than i had in mind
 i was just thinking it's a nice secure hurricane-proof building so projects don't get messed up. the dengue people should move in. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Good morning/afternoon/evening:
Before this thread takes up too much of everyone’s valuable time or is moved along unintended tangents, let me unequivocally say three things. (1) Our research on infectious diseases (part of which takes place on the World Community Grid with your generous support) is focused on finding CURES for viral diseases that cause suffering around the world. At present, we are studying dengue, West Nile, yellow fever, hepatitis C, and Venezuelan equine encephalitis viruses. If our DDDT research project is successful (and it is looking like it will be!), we will to expand our computer-based drug discovery efforts to tackle HIV, influenza virus, M. tuberculosis, P. falciparum (agent of malaria), and Leishmania (agent of leishmaniasis). (yes – we plan to move beyond “simple” viruses) (2) For better or worse, none of the above mentioned research is associated with the Galveston National Laboratory (GNL) and its BSL3 and BSL4 laboratories. Although I do not work in this state-of-the-art facility, I have great respect for the science that will occur within its laboratories. GNL researchers are dedicated to developing vaccines, drugs, and diagnostic tools to combat many highly infectious pathogens, and the GNL will provide them the necessary infrastructure to safely perform their research. (This building is so secure that it was undamaged during Hurricane Ike. As we rebuild, we will adopt some of its engineering features to better protect other key buildings on our campus.) (3) Our Discovering Dengue Drugs-Together project will soon restart its extensive calculations to find antiviral drugs to treat dengue, West Nile, yellow fever, and hepatitis C viruses. We greatly appreciate the computer time that has been unselfishly provided by the members of the World Community Grid. Your interest and support has made this grid one of the most powerful computing resources on the planet! All my best, Stan |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
stan, a pleasure to see your reply, and thank you.
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kh6dc@arrl.net
Advanced Cruncher Joined: Dec 5, 2006 Post Count: 69 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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That building looks very much like our Pacific Ocean Science and Technology (POST) Building here at the Unviersity of Hawaii at Manoa. It's built to withstand a CAT 4 hurricane where we conduct Navy and Army Research as part of the UARC.
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