Join the Fight Against Coronavirus COVID-19 with Folding@Home

Our friends at NVIDIA rallied gamers around the world to donate unused GPU and CPU cycles to Coranavirus COVID-19 research with Stanford’s Folding@Home project. For 20+ years, the Overclockers.com community processed over 15-million Work Units and sits at #5 in the world rankings.

Join us on Team 32 (or any team for that matter) to help researchers in their quest to learn more about COVID-19. See below for details on how to get started and Coronavirus specific projects.

PC Gamers, let’s put those GPUs to work.

Join us and our friends at @OfficialPCMR in supporting folding@home and donating unused GPU computing power to fight against COVID-19!

Learn more → https://t.co/EQE4u7xTZT pic.twitter.com/uO0ZCq8PEv

— NVIDIA GeForce (@NVIDIAGeForce) March 13, 2020

What is Folding@Home?

Per the official Folding@Home project website:

Folding@home is a distributed computing project, that very simply stated, studies protein folding and misfolding. Protein folding is explained in more detail in the scientific background section. It also helps us develop drugs to combat disease.

As it pertains to COVID-19, Dr. Greg Bowman explains how distributed computing can help scientists learn more about the pandemic:

We’re simulating the dynamics of COVID-19 proteins to hunt for new therapeutic opportunities. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see a list of ways you can help.

Proteins are molecular machines that perform many functions we associate with life. They sense the environment (e.g. in taste and smell), perform work (e.g. muscle contraction and breaking down food), and play structural roles (e.g. your hair). They are made of a linear chain of chemicals called amino acids that, in many cases, spontaneously “fold” into compact, functional structures. Much like any other machine, it’s how a protein’s components are arranged and move that determine the protein’s function. In this case, the components are atoms.

Viruses also have proteins that they use to suppress our immune systems and reproduce themselves.

To help tackle coronavirus, we want to understand how these viral proteins work and how we can design therapeutics to stop them.

How to Get Started

It’s pretty easy. Just follow the steps below:

1. Download the proper client for your operating system from [email protected]
2. Install the client
3. Enter your desired username and team number (Team 32 is Overclockers.com if you’re interested)

Coronavirus COVID-19 Specific Projects

In a nutshell, researchers launched initial projects to better understand how the virus interacts with the ACE2 receptor, which allows for viral transmission into human host cells. These studies may lead to the breakthrough necessary to disrupt this path, potentially allowing for a way to defeat the virus.

A list of project codes are provided below so you can determine whether your CPU or GPU is processing work units related to COVID-19 research. For more details, check out the COVID-19 update from earlier in the week.

• 11741: Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 causing virus) receptor binding domain in complex with human receptor ACE2.
• 11746: Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 causing virus) receptor binding domain in complex with human receptor ACE2 (alternative structure to 11741).
• 11742: Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 causing virus) protease in complex with an inhibitor.
• 11743: Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 causing virus) protease – potential drug target.
• 11744: Coronavirus SARS-CoV (SARS causing virus) receptor binding domain trapped by a SARS-CoV S230 antibody.
• 11745: Coronavirus SARS-CoV (SARS causing virus) receptor binding domain mutated to the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 causing virus) trapped by a SARS-CoV S230 antibody.

More Questions?

Here are some links to helpful resources:

• Folding@Home News 2019: Coronavirus Overclockers.com Discussion Thread
• Folding@Home Team 32 section on Overclockers.com Forums
• PC Master Race Sub-Reddit will be hosting an AMA on March 19 @ 4pm ET with four experts from Stanford’s Folding@Home team.
• COVID-19 FAQ on FoldingForum.org

Stay indoors and keep folding!

– Matt Ring (mdcomp)