[iMacfan]

Hi,

As I've now got an OS X machine, I'm looking at the various DC projects that could have a medical benefit (I'm a medical student). What I have been wondering is who will actually profit from the results. For example, D2OL, I know very little about but does seem to have a company as part of it. Now, I'm not against the free market, but will they just patent a valuable drug, and treat it as if it was completely produced in house. Do any of these projects have strict rules on what they do with the info produced, or to make the result pulic domain?

Thanks,

David

[jbcool]

Originally posted by iMacfan:
Hi,

As I've now got an OS X machine, I'm looking at the various DC projects that could have a medical benefit (I'm a medical student). What I have been wondering is who will actually profit from the results. For example, D2OL, I know very little about but does seem to have a company as part of it. Now, I'm not against the free market, but will they just patent a valuable drug, and treat it as if it was completely produced in house. Do any of these projects have strict rules on what they do with the info produced, or to make the result pulic domain?

Thanks,

David

Shaktai correct me when I am wrong AGAIN. I think that both the distributed fold and the folding at home project plan to publish their results and put the in the public domain. Who will benifit?
The research labs and / or schools, the drug companies, and the public with the results being usable by all drug companies.

[Shaktai]

Originally posted by jbcool:
Shaktai correct me when I am wrong AGAIN. I think that both the distributed fold and the folding at home project plan to publish their results and put the in the public domain. Who will benifit?
The research labs and / or schools, the drug companies, and the public with the results being usable by all drug companies.

I believe that is correct. Both projects are ran by Universities, and the core information pretty much becomes publically available. Both projects are very leading edge, .

D2OL was created by Sengent, a software company that makes the DC software, as a demonstration project. However its operation is now fully handled by the Rothberg Institute, a medical research organization (childhooddiseases.org) that started the TSC project using Sengent's software. TSC is pretty much their main child, but they adopted D2OL. Improvements to one project embrace both projects. They haven't actually stated that they will place all their info in the public domain, but neither do they have any contractual ties that I can find to any specific drug companies. They are working with a Chinese university/medical hospital on the SARS research and the implication is that they will make any discoveries available to anyone who wants them. However, they are not obligated to do so from my understanding, unlike the university projects that recieve public money. Or in other words, they could sell their discoveries to drug companies, if they wanted to. My personal impression is that they will make any discoveries available to any interested parties, but are not legally obligated to do so. Like any private research organization, practicality requires them to keep all options open. However they would have certain public obligations for any discoveries that come from public/government grant money.

Of course I am no legal eagle, so I could be totally wrong about that. I personally, choose to support the D2OL project for now, as I believe that the Rothberg Institute is reputable. Their clients still have some problems though, and their entire system, including the TSC (Tuberous Sclerosis Complex) and D2OL (Drug Design Optimization Lab) project are undergoing a complete upgrades to improve the systems and the clients. Closed beta testing is currently underway. The (mac capable) projects that I believe are most likely to provide benefit to the public in the foreseeable future are Folding@Home and D2OL/TSC. dFold has potential, but is very leading edge and has yet to prove their concepts. If successful though, they have a lot of potential.

Of course all that should be taken as opinion, not fact.

[iMacfan]

Thanks very much both of you - I now feel much more confident joining one of these projects. It only seems fair that a project with such huge public help/input is treated as you described.

David

[Shaktai]

If in doubt, I would recommend Folding@Home. The Pande Group at Stanford has put a lot of thought into the project, to make it not only solid scientific research, but also an enjoyable project for the volunteer participants. They have had some successes so far, (from the theoretical scientific perspective) and are a really great bunch.

[OneMacGuy]

Originally posted by Shaktai:
If in doubt, I would recommend Folding@Home. The Pande Group at Stanford has put a lot of thought into the project, to make it not only solid scientific research, but also an enjoyable project for the volunteer participants. They have had some successes so far, (from the theoretical scientific perspective) and are a really great bunch.

I found this link on the Folding FAQ Page:

http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandeg...ml#project.own

Who "owns" the results? What will happen to them?

Unlike other distributed computing projects, Folding@home is run by an academic institution (specifically the Pande Group, at Stanford University's Chemistry Department), which is a nonprofit institution dedicated to science research and education. We will not sell the data or make any money off of it.

Moreover, we will make the data available for others to use. In particular, the results from Folding@home will be made available on several levels. Most importantly, analysis of the simulations will be submitted to scientific journals for publication, and these journal articles will be posted on the web page after publication. Next, after publication of these scientific articles which analyze the data, the raw data of the folding runs will be available for everyone, including other researchers, here on this web site.

Yes, I am still considering making a move to Folding. So much time wasted on dFold. I think they are fixing to do another client update, the last was disastrous!