Hi...I'm a long time Seti@Home user who converted to RAH over a year ago (for a lot of reasons).

I am wondering, in laymens terms, how RAH compares to Folding At Home. They seem to be similar in the fact that they both want to eventually lead to cures for diseases like Cancer.

But what about some other non-obvious questions such as:

1)Do the 2 projects ever work hand in hand? Or help each other?

2)Why does FAH seem to have 1000 times the publicity than RAH? Other than that FAH runs on Playstation3



I had a few other questions that I can't think of now but both projects seem to be similar. Yet a non-biology person like myself can't seem to grasp, in plain old English, what either project has ultimately "found" in the past 1-2 years nor do I understand how when something is found, it will be revealed to drug manufacturers/hospitals and the general public as a press release.

Any help?

-Eric

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I'm not the most qualified person to respond to you questions, however, I would bet that if you reposted this thread to the Rosetta@home Science forum, you would be more likely to get a prompt, informed reply.

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Rosie, Rosie, she's our gal,
If she can't do it, no one shall!

I can move the thread to the science board if you like. I believe once you review the existing posts on the topic you will find they answer your question.

first thread
second thread

There are many links to additional information in those threads as well.

Rosetta is basically a research project. Learn how proteins work. Once that is achieved, then drugs and treatments come downstream from there. Currently, Rosetta's methods are often being used to supplement other data (x-ray, or NMR data) about a protein, to resolve what shape it takes. This saves weeks of person-hours trying to interpret the data.

If a medical researcher wants to cure bird flu for example, one approach they might take is to attack the proteins that make the virus infect the body the way it does. The virus has a unique protein chain that is part of it. If you know what shape the bird flu virus proteins have, it is theoretically possible to devise a protein that will stick to it and prevent it from functioning in the way that is harming the bird it is found in. If you prevent the viral cells from reproducing, or getting nutrients, or from behaving in the way they were, then you can "cure" the disease. You might also develop an immunization to prevent infection in the first place.

The reason that is still theoretical is the time it currently takes to determine the shape a protein will take when it is formed. Without knowing that shape, you can't begin to create something that will stick to it. Then you have to predict the shape of your creation, and then predict whether or not the two will really stick together. These are three distinct problems:

Protein structure prediction
Protein design
Protein docking simulation

I'm glad you've decided to stay with Rosetta. I also feel it is too important a mission not to support it.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense

Ejuel, out of curiosity, what were your reasons for changing over?