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Protein Folding Team

If you are reading this then I know you own a computer. You also have some form of Arthritis or you wouldn't be here either. So now the question is, since you have a computer and you have arthritis, how about using your computer to help fight back against this disease? What? What, are you nuts? How can a gimp like me help the fight against disease with only my computer?

Glad you asked!! :-)

In your own small way you can help by using your computer to do basic
research on Proteins.

At your leisure I want you to look over the following site:

http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/Cosm/index.html

Look through the first two sections to understand the protein folding problem and how you can help. These researchers started September 2000 with this project. They are not doing research into arthritis specifically, but are doing the basic research necessary in understanding the body and how it works. Hopefully in the future, with this understanding, will come a cure for our disease and many more.

Still interested? Great, now the fun begins! ArthritisInsight has started a "TEAM" of regular people like you and me to help these researchers on the protein folding problem. You don't have to have arthritis to join, we need your help to build the team membership and kick some butt.

You will need to download software from their web site that will run while you are not using your computer. In one to two days the software will ask you to connect to their ISP so that it can transfer the results and download more information to process. So follow the directions and you will be helping out yourself and all mankind.

1. Go to the following site and download the "client" into a file on your computer. You will need to enter your e-mail address, then go to "client" software, not the "screensaver". When I did this., I set up a special file on my computer to put this software in: c:/folding
   
   Folding at Home - Downloads
   
   
2. Now that you have down loaded the "client", you need to run it to set it up. Double click on "FAH3Console", go through the set up menus and when you are finished, the set up should have given you a file that can be accessed under your "Start" button. Unless you told it otherwise, it should be at "Start, Programs, Folding at Home."

3. Click on "Enable Auto Startup CONSOLE" Say yes then continue to the next step.

4. Click on "Folding@Home Console" and the program will start running.
   
   
5. You will need to answer some questions the first time it starts. The two important ones are your name/team number and whether you want to be asked to connect. For the name, you can use your name or select a suitable screen name. As an example, my name is: Ichy. Our team number is 7. As to being asked to connect, I put yes because I don't like having my computer dial out when ever it wants to. (I know, it's a control thing!)
   

   NOTE FROM KIM: FYI - My computer is signed on all the time and somedays I have a hard enough time remembering to check my mail let alone check to see what the folding program is trying to do. I use the graphical client for Windows. I have my folding console set to upload results and grab more work whenever it wants and have never had any problems. Unlike my family, it is totally self sufficient and just plugs away in the background. Most of the time I forget it's even there.

6. If you have the need to shut down the software, just right click on the icon in your tool bar and click to close.

Ichy(Arthritis_Warriors)

dan@etxeto.com

Dan Etcheto (Updated by Kim McCarthy)
Page last updated on June 20, 2002