The Folding@Home project (FAH) is dedicated to understanding protein folding, the diseases that result from protein misfolding and aggregation, and novel computational ways to develop new drugs in general.

“Folding” in the community refers to running simulations of proteins, the molecular machines that perform most of the active processes we associate with life, from muscle contraction to sensing light and digesting food. FAH exploits the biological insight these simulations provide to inform drug discovery and other efforts to combat global health threats.

The calculations FAH performs to understand how biology works and how we can treat disease are computationally demanding. Every ounce of computer power is needed! That’s where you can help.

FAH empowers anyone with a computer and an internet connection to become a citizen scientist and join forces to fight global health threats by donating their unused computer power.

Diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, cystic fibrosis, BSE (Mad Cow disease), an inherited form of emphysema, and even many cancers are believed to result from protein misfolding. When proteins misfold, they can clump together (“aggregate”). These clumps can often gather in the brain, where they are believed to cause the symptoms of Mad Cow or Alzheimer’s disease.

Visit the Folding@Home website to get more information.

TechEdConnect has a folding team called WPCUG. To date, the handful of team members have produced over 50 billion folding points since starting our FAH team in 2007.

Read about the Folding@Home project here. As always, you can follow our whole team’s progress here.

Watch our progress and cheer on Team WPCUG! This is our Team Overtakes and Conquests page.

Did you know that the Folding@Home project has its own Wikipedia entry where you can read more about it?

Check the Folding Forum.