Founding and inspiration
Folding@home was created in 1999 by Dr. Vijay Pande and his research team at Stanford University.
As the name suggests, the initial focus of the problem was on understanding the mechanism of protein folding. Protein folding is the process by which molecular machines, called proteins, assemble themselves. You can read more about proteins and folding here. There’s no experimental means to watch how every atom in a protein moves during protein folding, so the idea of using computer simulations to watch this process is appealing.
Simulating protein folding is extremely computationally demanding. When Folding@home began, it was barely possible to fold one of the smallest known proteins on one of the nation’s most powerful supercomputers. A single desktop computer had little to offer.
At that time, the internet was very new and people were just starting to wrap their heads around what one could do with it. Dr. Pande was inspired by the Napster file sharing network, which showed what a group of people on the internet could do by working together. He started to consider whether getting lots of computers on the internet working together could help tackle protein folding.
The last 2+ decades of research by the Folding@home community have been a clear demonstration that global communities can make massive contributions to science!
Beyond folding
One of the motivations for understanding protein folding has always been to turn around and use the insights gained to advance medical research.
One obvious step is to use insight into protein folding to understand protein misfolding, which is implicated in many diseases including Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. Indeed, the Folding@home community has made many contributions in this area.
The implications of Folding@home extend far beyond protein folding and misfolding though!
The same physical principles that lead protein to fold are also responsible for a wide range of other processes at the molecular scale. Examples include the ways proteins bind to other molecules (e.g. to medical drugs), the ways proteins change shape to transmit information in response to external stimuli, and the way they catalyze chemical reactions.
Where are we now?
Research on Folding@home is largely focused on biomedical applications and the basic research needed to enable these applications.
Some major themes include:
- How can we use insight into protein dynamics to design better therapeutics?
- How do different versions of the same protein modulate a person’s risk of developing various diseases, like Alzheimer’s?
- How do small changes to the composition of proteins (e.g. mutations in cancers) give rise to drug resistance?