The U.S. Defense Department, research universities and leading computer companies are launching a program today to develop a cure for smallpox using the power of millions of idle personal computers, the New York Times reported.

The computers, attached to a central grid, will test how a range of chemical compounds interact with an enzyme found in smallpox, called topoisomerase.  Researchers hope to find a compound that blocks the enzyme and stops the smallpox virus from spreading.

Volunteers can visit the project’s Web site, www.grid.org, and download a screen saver that will add that computer’s power to the smallpox effort when the machine is turned on but not in use (Steve Lohr, New York Times, Feb. 5).

The combined effort of 2 million personal computers is 30 times more powerful than the world’s fastest supercomputer, the Associated Press reported.

IBM servers are powering the effort and the results will be given to U.S. defense officials (Paul Elias, Associated Press/Washington Post, Feb. 5).

Oxford University and the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases will also be working on the project (Lohr, New York Times).

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