Computational efforts against COVID19: the Folding@Home project and the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid

by Antonio Perez-Calero Yzquierdo (PIC)

Wednesday 3 Jun 2020, 13:00 → 14:00 Europe/Madrid

IFAE Virtual Seminar Room (IFAE)

The Folding@Home project is devoted to computational simulations of tridimensional protein structures in relation to multiple human diseases, from breast cancer to ebola. Folding@Home is at the same time an example of a Citizen Science project, in which individuals and institutions get involved in volunteer computing, donating their work and available computing resources in an altruistic way. In the current COVD19 crisis, all efforts have shifted to simulating SARS-CoV-2 proteins in order to better understand infection mechanisms and develop new drugs to prevent or treat it. 

Eager to contribute, multiple initiatives have appeared from diverse Science domains, including Particle Physics. Experts in Distributed Computing from CERN and the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid community have adapted their resources, their slot allocation and workload management infrastructures so that Folding@Home tasks can be executed on resources nominally dedicated to the reconstruction, simulation and analysis of LHC collisions. Starting with their contribution to Folding@Home in early April, and quickly growing their contribution in terms of resources and reliability of the infrastructure, the CERN & WLCG Computing team has since become a key donor in the computational front of the fight against COVID19 pandemic

 

20200603_IFAE_F@H_APCY.pdf IFAE Zoom Seminar Room