World Community Grid - Microbiome Immunity Project
World Community Grid
The World Community Grid is a non-commercial distributed computing project aimed at enabling private individuals to make their excess computing power available for scientific research. World Community Grid unites different projects with different goals under one roof. There are currently 8 active projects on the World Community Grid:
- Microbiome Immunity Project
- Smash Childhood Cancer
- OpenZika
- Help Stop TB
- FightAIDS@Home - Phase 2
- Outsmart Ebola Together
- Mapping Cancer Markers
- FightAIDS@Home
Today I would like to introduce you to the Microbiome Immunity project and briefly explain to you what the goals of this project are.
Microbiome Immunity project
About the microbiome system
Each of us carries more than a trillion bacteria. More precisely, it is estimated that there are 3.8-10^13 bacteria, which every one of us carries. [1] Most of these bacteria live in the gut of the human body. [2]
Most of these bacteria are harmless or even beneficial to the human body.
However, a few can have harmful effects on the body and cause diseases such as type 1 diabetes, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis. However, the researchers still have little understanding of this complex microbiome system. However, in-depth knowledge of this system could help to better understand the development and healing of diseases.
Study of the microbiome system
In order to better understand the role of a bacterium in this system, researchers are investigating the proteins produced by these bacteria. The first step is to determine the structure of the protein. This is defined in the genes of the bacteria. The structure of a protein determines its function, so this is why it is important to determine it.
After the researchers have determined the functions of proteins, they investigate how these react with each other.
They also want to find out what role proteins play in diseases. This knowledge enables the development of drugs. The scope of this investigation is enormous. The microbiome system contains about 3 million different bacterial genes.
In comparison, the human body has about 20,000 different genes. The study of all these different genes in the laboratory therefore seems to be an impossible Herculean task.
However, it is possible to investigate the proteins by computational means. However, for such a large number of proteins, much more computing power is required than a research team normally has access to. Thanks to the countless volunteers of the World Community Grid, researchers in this project now have access to a free supercomputer that allows them to perform these simulations. [3]
Image of a protein structure [4]
How Gridcoin can revolutionize computer-aided research
The investigation of this enormous amount of data is only possible thanks to the cooperation of countless volunteers. But many people are not willing to provide their computers for free. They want to support research, but not pay the electricity costs. This is where Gridcoin comes in. Gridcoin is a cryptographic currency similar to bitcoin. However, Gridcoin pays you to support research with your computing power. Instead of doing pointless calculations that only aim to mine bitcoins, you can help cure cancer or search for aliens. For this you get Gridcoins, which you can use to pay online.
"Science has made us gods even before we are worthy of being men."
by Jean Rostand
Get started with Gridcoin
There are many great tutorials on the internet that help you to get started. I listed a few below.
Get some free Gridcoins
If you got any questions write a comment below!
Sources
[1] Sender R, Fuchs S, Milo R. Revised Estimates for the Number of Human and Bacteria Cells in the Body. PLoS Biology. 2016;14(8):e1002533. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1002533.
[2] Ursell LK, Metcalf JL, Parfrey LW, Knight R. Defining the Human Microbiome. Nutrition reviews. 2012;70(Suppl 1):S38-S44. doi:10.1111/j.1753-4887.2012.00493.x.
[3] https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/research/mip1/overview.do
[4] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spombe_Pop2p_protein_structure_rainbow.png
Symbiosis between animals and microbiota is fascinating! Wrong colonies might not only have bad effect on physical health but also mental health.
Last year I have discovered that horses do not eat grass. OK, they eat, but not really feed on grass. They feed bacteria and fungi, these in turn produce thousands of simple chemical substances like amino acids, vitamins, fatty acids - that is actual food for horses :)