infexxionPS3 Fights Disease This Month
The previously reported Folding@home disease research project from Stanford University is set to expand on PlayStation 3 this month with the arrival of the console's next update in late March.
Folding@home will help scientists study the complex “folding” process that amino acids undergo in order to become proteins. Serious diseases that are caused by improperly formed proteins include Lou Gehrig’s disease, mad-cow disease, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and cystic fibrosis.
The project will use the PS3 network and the connected Cell processors to simulate this folding process at a rate exponentially faster than the currently connected network of PCs, according to Sony and Stanford.
"With PS3 now part of our network, we will be able to address questions previously considered impossible to tackle computationally, with the goal of finding cures to some of the world's most life-threatening diseases,” said Folding@home project lead Vijay Pande.
The Folding@home icon is expected to be added to the PS3’s XMB as part of the next update in late March. Users have the option of activating the program manually by clicking the icon or by having the program initiate automatically whenever the system is idle.
Sony Computer Entertainment said that it would participate in other social science, medical and environmental studies aside from Folding@home in the future.
Folding@home will help scientists study the complex “folding” process that amino acids undergo in order to become proteins. Serious diseases that are caused by improperly formed proteins include Lou Gehrig’s disease, mad-cow disease, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and cystic fibrosis.
The project will use the PS3 network and the connected Cell processors to simulate this folding process at a rate exponentially faster than the currently connected network of PCs, according to Sony and Stanford.
"With PS3 now part of our network, we will be able to address questions previously considered impossible to tackle computationally, with the goal of finding cures to some of the world's most life-threatening diseases,” said Folding@home project lead Vijay Pande.
The Folding@home icon is expected to be added to the PS3’s XMB as part of the next update in late March. Users have the option of activating the program manually by clicking the icon or by having the program initiate automatically whenever the system is idle.
Sony Computer Entertainment said that it would participate in other social science, medical and environmental studies aside from Folding@home in the future.
