Folding@home

Our goal is to solve massive computational problems related to protein folding research. The problems require so many calculations, we ask people to donate their unused computer power to help us crunch some of the numbers. Servers at Stanford University deliver individual “work units” to thousands of computers around the world. Each of these work units is a small piece of a massive problem. When a computer finishes a work unit, it sends the results back to Stanford and gets a new work unit. Stanford’s computers then stitch together all the results to solve bigger problems. Proteins are the elementary machines inside every cell that we rely on to keep us alive and healthy. They assemble themselves by “folding.” When proteins misfold, there can be serious health consequences. If we better understand protein misfolding we can design drugs and therapies to combat these illnesses.