United Devices today announced IBM has selected its Grid MPTM software to power the IBM World Community Grid, a volunteer-based distributed computing network for enabling massive-scale, public interest research projects. The inaugural World Community Grid project, called the Human Proteome Folding Project, will harness the power of grid computing to predict the structure of the 30,000 plus proteins found in the human genome. Currently the structures of only a fraction of these proteins are known. A protein’s shape determines its function, and scientists say understanding protein functions is essential to the successful development of therapeutics to treat illness and disease. The project will run concurrently on United Devices’ www.grid.org, the world’s largest computational grid dedicated to life science research. “Never before has a project of this size taken place using grid computing technology,” said Ed Hubbard, United Devices president and founder. “Having two massive grids, capable of performing years of research in mere hours, working together to define all unknown protein structures within the human genome is a huge step forward in the battle against life-threatening diseases. We’re proud that IBM selected United Devices to build their own global grid for enabling these types of critical health research projects.” “This partnership with IBM provides us with tremendous computational capacity that we would not otherwise have,” said Dr. Leroy Hood, president of the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB). “The Human Proteome Folding Project will help us to better understand a significant fraction of the proteins in the human proteome. Understanding the function of these mystery proteins is critical in our quest toward the predictive, preventive and personalized medicine of the future.” “This project is one of the next logical steps in a progression of events starting with the sequencing of the Human Genome,” said Dr. Richard Bonneau, senior scientist at ISB. “The data gained from this project will facilitate the research and development of healthcare and life sciences companies across the world seeking to offer breakthrough therapeutics to the public.” "United Devices and its Grid MP technology provide a proven, reliable and secure platform for the World Community Grid," said Stanley Litow, vice president, Corporate Community Relations and president, IBM International Foundation. "We welcome United Devices’ participation and expertise as we join together in this global effort to harness the collective computing power of up to six million PCs." United Devices Grid MP technology enables organizations to harness the power of online computers to enable computational research and analysis projects on a massive scale. Previous United Devices grid projects have powered public cancer, anthrax and smallpox research projects. The technology is also revolutionizing research and development and business processing at top pharmaceutical companies like Novartis and Johnson & Johnson. Leveraging the unparalleled power of grid computing, it is anticipated that the project will reduce an estimated 300,000 years of conventional computational time to less than 12 months. However, according to scientists at ISB, it will take years before the research leads to new vaccines or biotechnology applications. Once the project is complete, IBM’s World Community Grid and United Devices’ grid.org will operate as separate entities running their own individual research projects. Volunteers wishing to participate in the Human Proteome Folding Project can visit the IBM grid, at www.worldcommunitygrid.org, to download software that runs research-related data during PC downtime. The program is secure and unobtrusive, and uses Grid MP technology to pass data and results from the user’s PC to IBM’s data center. Background: United Devices is the market leader in enterprise grid solutions. The company’s Grid MP platform is used to operate clusters of any size as well as aggregate compute resources on a network to create an enterprise grid capable of running a wide range of high-performance computing applications in life sciences, geosciences, manufacturing, financial services, chemical engineering and other industries. The company’s solutions are available in both enterprise and on-demand deployments. United Devices also operates the world’s largest Grid for grand-scale research that consists of almost three million desktop, portable and server systems in more than 220 countries. For more information on secure grid solutions, visit the United Devices Web site www.ud.com. To volunteer your idle compute power, visit www.grid.org. The Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) is an internationally renowned non-profit research institute dedicated to the study and application of systems-biology (www.systemsbiology.org).