ACADEMIA

The process of understanding the function of proteins and genes that have yet to be "deciphered" by scientists will be accelerated by grid computing power in Rio de Janeiro: Recent technological advances allowed researchers to quickly describe the full genome of hundreds of organisms with medical, commercial or industrial interest. For medicine, in particular, the current challenge is to analyze and compare this information in order to generate knowledge that enables, for example, the development of new medication, vaccines and methods for diagnosis. This is the objective of the “Genome Comparison Project” team led by chemist Wim Degrave, researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute (IOC), a unit of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz). The Genome Comparison Project launches today on World Community Grid and is the first Brazilian project to participate in this IBM philanthropic initiative. So far, more than 400 genomes have been fully described by scientists throughout the world, and to compare them all would be a hard task that, conducted through conventional methods, would take years. The technology deployed by World Community Grid, which uses the idle capacity of personal computers (PCs), enables the work to be concluded in just two months, also allowing it to be continually reviewed and updated, as scientists provide new genome sequences. "Our project will allow functions to be attributed to all the proteins that have been predicted, and confirm hypothesis formulated by researchers in other genome studies," says Degrave. "This confirmation is essential especially regarding the initial genetic research, which still used low-precision technologies." The team also plans to analyze all the significant aspects of the studied proteins, unlike previous projects, which just tried to understand their main components. The functional analysis of proteins and the studies about their interaction are important to unravel the way cells and microorganisms interact with their environment and/or hosts, opening the door to the development of new strategies, both to control parasites and infectious diseases as well as to treat metabolic, chronic or degenerative diseases. In addition, the assembled database will allow scientists to probe the evolution of proteins, and therefore better understand the evolution of genomes, biochemistry and structure of many organisms, contributing to the experimental approaches of the analysis of the planet's biodiversity. "World Community Grid is a true global demonstration of innovation that makes a difference," said Sirlene Toledo, executive of IBM Brasil's Social Responsibility programs. "We are very proud that Brazil was able to submit a research project of such scale and relevance." The Genome Comparison Project is the fourth in the world – and the first outside the United States – to run on World Community Grid. The project starts today, and this month the first batch of processed data will arrive at Fiocruz for analysis. Other ongoing World Community Grid research projects are related to human proteins, AIDS and cancer.