The latest effort to combat cancer taps the same peer-to-peer (P2P) technology that helped make Napster a household name. Chip giant Intel today announced that it has joined with the American Cancer Society, the National Foundation for Cancer Research, the University of Oxford and United Devices, Inc. in a philanthropic effort designed to help cancer researchers.
"With this significant new resource, cancer research will be dramatically changed," said John R. Seffrin, Ph.D., CEO of the American Cancer Society. "Beginning today, scientists will be able to perform research faster than we ever thought possible, and as we move forward, we will work with researchers to help them develop new ways to use this resource. We believe this is an incredible advancement for how medical and cancer research will be conducted."
The program raises the profile of Austin, TX-based United Devices which developed the P2P application (available as a free download at the Intel.com/cure Web site. The company specializes in distributed computing applications via the Internet. The software works as a screen saver borrowing idle computing cycles from participating users.
"Intel and the scientific community are using the PC and the power of peer-to-peer computing technology to dramatically change the way medical research is performed," said Intel's CEO Craig Barrett. "By harnessing Internet-connected PCs, this project will enable, what could be, the largest biological computational capability in history to help solve some of the most difficult scientific problems."
Intel has been an early proponent of P2P technology offering programs for developers and using it for its own internal computing requirements.
"This collaborative initiative offers us the capability to save three to five years in the design of anti-cancer drugs, meaning promising medicine will get to the market much quicker," said Dr. Sujuan Ba, science director for the National Foundation for Cancer Research. "It is incredible that through this coordinated computational power, we will be enabling cancer patients, cancer survivors and the general public to assist cancer researchers in curing one of the world's deadliest diseases like never before."
