Hello beach_bum,

Yes. FightAIDSAtHome found 2 drugs that interfere with the HIV protease molecule. http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/...ad,5510_offset,360#269190

Both drugs need to be tweaked for maximum effectiveness then go through a long multi-year series of clinical trials. But then, we are working on the early research end of things, not the incredibly expensive and laborious development cycle. So we do not know if this will lead to a commercial drug or drugs.

We expect that FAAH will soon start searching for drugs to interfere with the HIV integrase molecule.

Another successful research project was Help Defeat Cancer ( http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/research/hdc/overview.do ) which we completed several years ago. http://pleiad.umdnj.edu/IBM/

Several months of computing verified the conjecture that computer image processing of biopsy samples could classify different types of cancers so this project is now undergoing more development at several institutions.

Many of our projects are not 'solving' any problem but rather are compiling vast reference libraries. Think of the CRC Handbook you were introduced to in college labs. We are producing giant databases of information like that for scientists to use. A good example is the Human Proteome Folding project - now called HPF2. We have produced a large number of lists of folded protein structures for humans and other species. Pretty soon we will start folding the proteins from the Human Microbiome Project ( http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/hmp/ ), which is trying to list all the bacteria that live in and on the human body.


Lawrence

Thanks you for the replies.

I know the projects here are early stage developments and do not lead directly to a solution because they need to be followed by additional research, manufacturing, delivery and so on. I was only curious if any of the projects got to the final stage where they helped someone.

Help Defeat Cancer seems like it's done just that and FightAIDS@Home is on its way :)

Cheers