The Institute for Childhood Diseases to leverage distributed computing

Experts recognize that research into tuberous sclerosis is providing a greater understanding of potentially devastating childhood diseases including cancer, epilepsy, autism, and learning disabilities. Through a network of world-class scientists and physicians, state of the art technology, and support from a generous community of volunteers, significant progress is being made towards developing cures to help children and families affected by these illnesses.

Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a genetic disorder that causes benign tumors to form in many different organs, primarily in the brain, eyes, heart, kidney, skin and lungs. Some people with tuberous sclerosis experience developmental delay, mental retardation, autism, and seizures.

At least two children born each day will have tuberous sclerosis and current estimates place tuberous sclerosis affected births at 1 in 6000. Nearly 1 million people worldwide are known to have tuberous sclerosis and there are many undiagnosed cases due to the obscurity of the disease. TSC is as common as ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) but virtually unknown by the general population. There are presently no cures and there is no way to predict how severely or mildly an individual may be affected by TSC.

Since computers sit idle for much of the time, the programme applied by the Rothberg Institute, uses a computer's downtime to conduct drug research. This is a wonderful concept because it is safe, does not interfere with the computer's primary function, and literally links thousands of computers into a virtual "supercomputer" for drug discovery. This information is automatically downloaded over secure lines to a primary computer every time a user logs onto the Internet. This combined effort can exponentially increase drug discovery efforts.

The discoveries made by this "virtual supercomputer" are analysed by scientists and physicians at leading academic research laboratories that are funded through significant financial grants made by the Institute. Their role in this project is to analyse the discoveries made through this "virtual supercomputer" and apply them to actual drug development. With more than 1000 computer users helping, scientists have already begun making significant progress towards developing cures to help children and families affected by potentially devastating disorders.