Computer users chip in to boost protein research

Opinion
Oct 22, 20071 min

Howard Hughes Medical Institute is crediting 70,000 selfless home computer users with helping its researchers to accurately predict for the first time the three-dimensional structure of a special sort of protein. The finding could help in drug design, among other things.

The computing power harnessed from thousands of machines through the Rosetta@home project enabled the running of complex algorithms used to conduct the research.