While they are away from their computers, the screensaver pops up and begins processing the radio signals. Meanwhile, the software automatically checks in at a central website to drop off results and pick up new assignments. They point out that, in just three years, the project accomplished what a single computer would have taken 400,000 years to do. The human body produces thousands of different kinds of proteins. Each one has to fold into a specific, three-dimensional shape to function properly.
Some proteins resemble intricate pretzels, while others are twisted and woven into braids.
Pande and his laboratory team have done extensive research on protein folding. The project has taken off so well that Pande now has some 10,000 volunteers doing biochemistry research for him on their home computers. Others are focusing on HIV drug design, flu vaccine modeling and cancer therapy. Otherwise, you end up wasting them. But biological computations, such as protein folding, are more difficult to parcel out.