The World Lends a Hand
Tapping the Power of the World Community Grid
By P.A. Castro

The total HIV and AIDS figure in the Philippines alone, according to UNAIDS Global AIDS Report 2006, is estimated to be in the vicinity of 12,000 cases.

Unfortunately, while there have been efforts from the government – such as the ratification of Republic Act 8504: Philippine AIDS Control and Prevention Act of 1998 – the Human Rights watch believes that not much is being done to really control the problem, so that in the Philippines, HIV and AIDS is considered a “hidden and growing” epidemic.

With this, the world's largest information technology company, IBM, launched a research effort to help battle HIV and AIDS with the use of the massive computational power of the World Community Grid (WCG).

WCG is a global community of computer users who have joined the philanthropic technology initiatives of IBM by donating unused time on their personal computers. More specifically working with the renowned Scripps Research Institute (SRI), a private, non-profit research organization engaged in basic biomedical science based in San Diego, WCG hosts the Internet-based FightAIDS@Home, an evolutionary research project dedicated to finding new AIDS therapies. 

FightAIDS@Home aims to design new therapeutic approaches that are effective in the treatment of AIDS in the face of viral drug resistance.  But since the pool of potential drug molecules, as well as that of possible mutant HIV proteins that may evolve, is enormous, the WCG’s massive computing power addresses the prediction of relevant interactions between these two pools of molecules to design effective AIDS therapies.

“The computational challenges in approaching this problem are the vast number of possible mutations that may occur, and the huge number of possible chemical compounds that might be tested against them,” says Dr. Arthur J. Olson, chair professor of Anderson Research of SRI’s Department of Molecular Biology.  “The new WCG project will run millions upon millions of docking computations to evaluate potential interactions between compounds and mutant viral proteins.”

Launched in November 2004, WCG is a global humanitarian effort that “applies the unused computing power of individual and business computers to help the world’s most difficult and societal problems. Today, more than 100,000 members are running WCG on more than 170,000 computers around the world, with the number expected to continually increase since there are over 650 million personal computers around the world, each considered a potential participant in WCG.

LOOKING FORWARD

MacMac now aims to finish schooling, recognizing that it is the best way for him to find a decent job “so I can help my family,” he says.  He is currently studying at Camp Sunshine, taking intermediate classes so he can go back to formal schooling.  He pays for his lessons with his earnings from working with a non-government organization.

But MacMac wants to do more.

MacMac wants to build a center for street children for him to assist in projects for youths like him.  “Kung sa street ka lang pamensar ko man eh nga wala gid ya madangtan nga mau sa lawas namon, basi bala ano matabo sa amon kundi wala gid kabalo pamilya namon (If you stay on the streets, nothing good could happen to your life; or maybe something terrible would happen, and your families would not even know it),” says MacMac, who wants to help young people like him realize that “they can still better their lives.”

A noble intention, but only if his lesson can reach more street children.

And if only steps concerning them – and everyone, in general – are actually taken.