Editing Grid.org (section)

=== Cancer Research Project ===
[[Image:United Devices.PNG|thumb|250px|UD Agent running the LigandFit software for Cancer Research phase 2.]]
The United Devices Cancer Research Project, which began in 2001, was seeking possible drugs for the treatment of [[cancer]] using [[distributed computing]].<ref name="bbc-cancer">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1255804.stm|title=Screensaver aids cancer fight|publisher=BBC News|date=2001-04-03|accessdate=2006-08-20}}</ref>  There were around 150,000 users in the United States and 170,000 in Europe along with hundreds of thousands more in other parts of the world.

The project was an alliance of several companies and organisations:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://grid.org/projects/cancer/participants.htm|title=Cancer Project Participants|publisher=grid.org|accessdate=2006-08-20|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927132915/http://grid.org/projects/cancer/participants.htm|archivedate=2007-09-27}}</ref>
*[[United Devices|United Devices Inc.]]
*[[National Foundation for Cancer Research]]
*[[Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford|University of Oxford Department of Chemistry]]
*Donors of molecular research

United Devices released the cancer research [[screensaver]] under the principle of using spare computing power. The program, which could be set to run continually, used "virtual screening" to find possible interactions between molecules and target proteins, i.e. a drug. These molecules ([[ligand]]s) are sent to the host computer's UD Agent. When these molecules dock successfully with a target protein this interaction is scored for further investigation.

The research consisted of two phases:

* Phase 1 tested over 3 billion drug-like molecules against 12 proteins which were known to be suitable targets for anti-cancer drugs. It used the "THINK" software for the simulation of the molecular interactions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/cancer/thinkcalculations.html|title=Think phase 1 computation|publisher=University of Oxford|accessdate=2006-08-20|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060827052411/http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/cancer/thinkcalculations.html|archivedate=2006-08-27}}</ref>
* Phase 2, using the "LigandFit" software developed by [[Accelrys]] to model interactions, sought to refine the Phase 1 data to produce a more manageable list of drug candidates for testing that would require experimental collaborators, including some from industry.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://grid.org/projects/cancer/ligandfit.htm|title=LigandFit explained|publisher=grid.org|accessdate=2006-08-20|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927140054/http://grid.org/projects/cancer/ligandfit.htm|archivedate=2007-09-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/cancer/phaseii.html|title=Phase 2 of the Project|publisher=University of Oxford|accessdate=2006-08-20|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060924201756/http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/cancer/phaseii.html|archivedate=2006-09-24}}</ref>