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DUBLIN, May 18, 2009 - IBM and researchers supported by the Decrypthon Program are launching the next phase to find a cure for muscular dystrophy on World Community Grid.

This phase extends the analysis of 336 proteins in 2005 to 2280 proteins that are believed to play a role in neuromuscular diseases, a group of chronic diseases with no cure. The original results formed a database for molecular and biological researchers to use, and created a more robust mathematical modeling system. The expanded project will continue to analyze and document the function and interactions of proteins involved in muscular dystrophy. These results can be used by researchers to design new therapeutic strategies. The billions of calculations needed to study all of the combinations are so intensive, that the Decrypthon Program is calling for 150,000 new World Community Grid users to sign up to help conduct the research.

World Community Grid will use the idle computational power from volunteers’ computers to run calculations that will then be feed into a database for use by any researcher seeking cures for neuromuscular diseases.

View video on how World Community Grid helps at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sdBpfSp63g

"Muscular Dystrophy Ireland always welcomes input from volunteers, particularly if it helps to support members, spreads awareness, or benefits research into muscular dystrophy. We believe that IBM’s World Community Grid, which uses idle computer power from volunteers' computers worldwide, is a unique way of helping to progress research into muscular dystrophy, and everyone (including people with neuromuscular conditions) can play their part," said Joe Mooney, Chief Executive, Muscular Dystrophy Ireland.

The Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy project is lead by the Université Pierre et Marie Curie with the participation of teams from CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research). The project is promoted by DECRYPTHON, a partnership between AFM (French Muscular Dystrophy Association), CNRS and IBM Corporation.

“There are more than 200 different kinds of neuromuscular diseases, devastating the people it affects and their families. Volunteers who sign up to allow their computers to be used coupled with innovative grid technology can make the difference,” said Stanley S. Litow, Vice President, IBM, Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs and President of the IBM International Foundation. “World Community Grid has been an innovative resource for researchers who have promising projects yet lack the funding and availability to the world’s largest supercomputers.”

World Community Grid is the largest public humanitarian grid in existence with more than 440,000 members who represent more than 200 countries and links to more than 1.2 million computers. It has provided more than 250 million results, that’s just under 2 results every second. It is the volunteers that help make the difference because as each one shares their computer time, scientists are able to conduct their research faster. For example,

• Influenza Antiviral Drug Search was launched on May 5, 2009 and researchers expect to begin laboratory tests on drug candidates for drug-resistant influenza strains and new strains, such as H1N1, in less than a month.
• Nutritious Rice for the World has already returned 12 million transactions and 11,000 years of compute time.
• AfricanClimate@Home just completed its data collection and research analysis will now begin.
• Help Defeat Cancer proved their more accurate technique for identifying cancer and received a $2.5 million grant from NIH to further deploy its system.
• FightAIDS@Home has identified over 40 potential drug candidates and is proceeding with laboratory work on these.
• Discovering Dengue Drugs Together has identified potential antiviral compounds and is continuing with laboratory work on those.

To become of member of World Community Grid and donate unused computer time, individuals register on www.worldcommunitygrid.org and install a free, unobtrusive, and secure software program onto their computers. When computers are idle, data is requested from World Community Grid’s server. These computers then perform the computations, and send the results back to the server, prompting it for a new piece of work. A screen saver will tell individuals when their computers are being used.

For more information about IBM, please visit: www.ibm.com/ie

For more information about Decrypthon, please visit: http://www.decrypthon.fr

To join World Community Grid, please visit: www.worldcommunitygrid.org