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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Completed Research
Forum: Human Proteome Folding
Thread: our work units are real, guaranteed! |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 9
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
(to be read in the voice of a radio commercial announcer):
Many grid projects run out of work and resend redundant work units to keep their volunteers from migrating or loosing interest… NOT HPF! That’s my promise! How can we promise that? Because nature is Vast and we can be sure that people are always depositing new sequences into the database. Every workunit you get is real and is making an incremental contribution, shining light on a new protein and expanding the envelope of our understanding. With this in mind (pause for dramatic effect here)… We’re progressing so fast that we’re going to put one more organism on the Grid. In collaberation with the NYU center for functional genomics we are folding Arabidopsis (a model plant that is at the forefront of our(humankind) understanding of plant biology. In any case this will likely result in another 10k domains to fold and another big organism in the resultant database. See these sites for more info: http://www.nyu.edu/fas/dept/biology/faculty/coruzzi/index.html http://www.nyu.edu/fas/dept/biology/faculty/birnbaum/index.html http://www.nyu.edu/fas/dept/biology/resources/ccfg.html SO, if you see some bubbles added to the top of this test-tube (or more test tube), know that we are not doing anything fishy. This is not to say that there couldn't be a disruption in the wcg, this is only to say that we will be honest about it (or at least I will in the context of the HPF project)...  ps. these are the oppinions of a sleep deprvived scientist |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Here are a few of the articles from the ScienceDaily archives on the small inedible mustard plant Arabidopsis.
First-Ever Complete Plant Genome Sequence Is Announced; International Team Reveals DNA Secrets Of Arabidopsis Thaliana Date: 2000-12-14 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/12/001214083640.htm New 'Knockout' Map Helps Study Gene Functions In Model Plant Date: 2003-08-05 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/08/030801081937.htm Map Of Genes In Plant Root Yields New Tool For Exploring Tissue Development Date: 2003-12-23 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/12/031217072646.htm Reappearance Of Missing Genetic Information Poses Exception To The Rule Date: 2005-03-28 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050325153201.htm RNA Research Reveals New Responsibilities Date: 2005-09-06 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/09/050906081607.htm Enjoy!  mycrofth |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
is there a biological connection between plants and humans (besides eating them!)?
 in other words, will this plant stuff be useful for curing human diseases or achieving immortality? |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
also what is the estimated processing time for the plants?
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barney15c
Advanced Cruncher Joined: Feb 17, 2005 Post Count: 103 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Many grid projects run out of work and resend redundant work units to keep their volunteers from migrating or loosing interest… NOT HPF! That’s my promise! How can we promise that? Because nature is Vast and we can be sure that people are always depositing new sequences into the database. Every workunit you get is real and is making an incremental contribution, shining light on a new protein and expanding the envelope of our understanding. I would be pretty P'd off if i found that my crunching was wasted effort in the attempt of keeping me on board for a future project which was not yet ready to be implemented. In my book that is nothing short of being dishonest and does nothing to install confidence for volunteers however great the cause. I am pleased that WCG has a better ethic towards its volunteers and that we are kept informed of any developments. I am sure that other volunteers would feel the same.     [Edit 1 times, last edit by barney15c at Oct 10, 2005 12:32:25 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
I remember when Seti@home first started. (~May 1999?) They were still shaking out the bugs for what seemed like several weeks, the participants got the same dates and sky coordinates over and over and over. There were those that were arguing that it was legitamate to have alot of repetative data because the project was groundbreaking and in its infancy. Others said they felt like a hamster in an excercise wheel. Eventually the data started changing and everyone was happy.
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hello halfcard,
is there a biological connection between plants and humans (besides eating them!)? At the deep cellular level - yes, there are a lot of similarities between plants, animals and fungi. For the last 5 years, Arabidopsis has been the type speciman for plant biologists to play with. Sort of the equivalent of the laboratory mouse for animal biologists. So putting Arabidopsis into the database will draw a whole different crowd of plant researchers. The more scientists with different types of backgrounds and interests we have looking at our results, the more likely we are to get new scientific discoveries made. At least, that's what I think. 10K domains sounds like about 10% of what we have been doing. If so, since we are crunching faster than at the start, that shouldn't take more than another 4 weeks. Of course, that will take us into the time that we will be crunching on the HIV program as well, so the HPF project will probably extend into December. mycrofth |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
thanks!
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
thanks to Mycrofth for putting up all that info on this thread. I agree, good stuff.
in general i thinkof all advancements of biology as import to humans and the improvement of the human condition, etc. My feeling is that companies are changing plants, whether or not they fully understand the biology, SO we should try to understand the biology so we can be more informed as a society when regulating those changes. |
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