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Methods to Increase the Sensitivity of High Resolution Melting Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Genotyping in Malaria
Published on: November 10, 2015
Grid-added value to address malaria
1Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire de Clermond-Ferrand, Université Blaise Pascal/IN2P3-CNRS UMR 6533, 63177 Aubière Cedex, France. breton@clermont.in2p3.fr
Summary
This paper proposes an open-source, grid-based collaboration to combat malaria drug discovery. A pilot project successfully docked 42 million ligands, demonstrating the potential of distributed computing for global health challenges.
Area of Science:
- Computational chemistry
- Bioinformatics
- Distributed computing
Background:
- Malaria remains a significant global health burden, necessitating novel drug discovery approaches.
- Existing drug discovery pipelines are often slow and resource-intensive.
- The need for collaborative, open-source initiatives in scientific research is increasingly recognized.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose a distributed, Internet-based, open-source collaboration for malaria drug discovery.
- To leverage grid technology for large-scale computational drug screening.
- To foster a global research community effort against malaria.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing grid technology, specifically the Enabling Grids for E-science Europe (EGEE) infrastructure.
- Implementing a peer-production model for information-embedding goods.
- Performing large-scale molecular docking of ligands against malaria targets.
Main Results:
- Successfully docked 42 million ligands in 6 weeks, utilizing 80 CPU years.
- Demonstrated the feasibility of a large-scale, distributed drug discovery effort.
- Generated significant interest from international research laboratories for future deployments.
Conclusions:
- Grid technology and open-source collaboration models are effective for accelerating malaria drug discovery.
- The initial deployment validates the potential for a worldwide, nonproprietary approach to tackling global health issues.
- Further large-scale deployments are planned, with increased global research community participation.
