WCG June Updates

WCGs mission is to create the largest public computing grid benefiting humanity. You can choose from various work units to crunch: Fight AIDS, cure Cancer or support the Human Proteome Folding projects amongst many. (Previously supported by IBM).
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chriscambridge
Active UBT Contributor 1+ yr
Posts: 2178
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2016 1:56 pm
Location: UK

WCG June Updates

Post by chriscambridge »

Just came across this (from Reddit) which basically summarises all the updates on WCG projects from the forums:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BOINC/comments ... june_2020/

WCG Monthly Updates, June 2020

Here's another month of research team updates from the World Community Grid forums. Text [in brackets] is commentary from me; all other text is from WCG Admins.

A note before this month's updates proper begin. A line item in the Fight AIDS@Home update, which I think a lot of people will be interested in but which might also be overlooked by someone skimming the updates, is: the FAAH Phase 1 team is actively developing a GPU-enabled AutoDock. This could lead to FAAH and OPN becoming CPU+GPU projects.

OpenPandemics

[No official updates yet. There was recently an issue with the WU validator erroneously marking some fraction of results as invalid, but that has been resolved. Other than that, work continues, with approximately 1M WUs crunched per day. ]

Africa Rainfall Project

The work unit supply and storage are both stable at this point. We're going to look into increasing the workflow rate, and will post an update if we change it. [Currently: 8k WUs/day]

The conference that they wanted to present at in September has been fully cancelled--there will be no virtual conference to substitute for the in-person event.

They are keeping an eye on other conferences in their field to submit presentations for next year.

Microbiome Immunity Project

The project's average run time for most of this year has been ~150 CPU years per day. The researchers are finding this to be the "sweet spot" for giving them a good amount of data to analyze at a manageable pace. [Note: this has fallen due to people flooding the OPN project]

They wrote a short project update, which we published after our last monthly call.

The research team's first paper is still being reviewed for possible publication, and they're continuing to work on additional papers as well.

Smash Childhood Cancer

[SCC is currently on hiatus.]

They've started analysis for data on a target called osteopontin (SPP1) that has already been run on World Community Grid.

Regarding the two grant applications mentioned in last month's update, they're still waiting on decisions. (Many grant makers are prioritizing COVID-19 research and other work is a lesser priority.)

They've decided on one of the future targets for World Community Grid to crunch, and have submitted a budget to study it. One of the researchers is waiting for grant money (separate from the two grants mentioned above) to make sure they can study this target. Once the funding has been approved, we'll announce the name of the target and the researchers will begin pre-grid work. No ETA on when this work will be done--timelines are very difficult to predict these days due to COVID-19 and widespread civil unrest.

The group is usually involved in a conference called SIOP Asia, which may be web-based this year in September.

There was a discussion about how to ensure that they have the resources to do further analysis and testing based on the data they get from WCG in the future.

Help Stop TB

University of Nottingham is moving to online only classes for the fall term. The researchers are spending most of their time right now adapting their curriculum to distance learning.

Christof was not able to attend this month's call because he's heads-down on developing protocols to adapt their lab work for remote learning, social distancing (for work that absolutely must be done on campus), and other COVID-19 related changes.

They've created a short project update for us that we'll publish in the next few days. The update will introduce their new team member, bringing the team back up to three people.

Fight AIDS@Home 2

The Phase 2 researchers are now beginning the process of getting compounds tested and writing a manuscript based on the data they've received from us so far. This is in the very early stages and there's no ETA yet for when any of this will be completed.

The work units currently in the pipeline will be the last ones for awhile. It will be at least 2-3 months before we have more.

They're still discussing the next group of potential targets with the Phase 1 team.

The Phase 1 team is working on a GPU version of AutoDock. We'll have more information in the next few weeks as the researchers finalize their data and get a paper ready for submission. (This could impact OpenPandemics as well as FAAH).

Mapping Cancer Markers

Following up on minor code change mentioned past couple of monthly reports, the WCG tech team will make an announcement once these changes are ready for beta testing by volunteers. (No exact ETA, but we expect that this will be soon if alpha testing goes well.)

Not directly related to Mapping Cancer Markers--following up on their work with an international consortium of institutions that is working on analysis of SARS-CoVD2, they've applied for a grant to do work on protein interactions within the virus. No ETA on when they'll hear back.

No major updates on the ongoing analyses of lung cancer and ovarian cancer data.
chriscambridge
Active UBT Contributor 1+ yr
Posts: 2178
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2016 1:56 pm
Location: UK

Re: WCG June Updates

Post by chriscambridge »

Why I have (temporarily) joined "Sawyer's Cancer Fighting Network" WCG Team:

https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/abou ... icleId=628

https://www.helpsawyerfightcancer.com/
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