The purpose of this blog is to follow our volunteer effort in a grid computing project who's purpose is to conquer cancer through x-ray crystallography. Before we get into how this project will help our efforts to fight cancer, it must first be explained what grid computing is and how it's use can help scientific research. Grid computing simply explained, is when a plethora of computer resources are pooled together in a single task. This task can be anything from searching for extra terrestrial life, finding the next prime number, or conquering cancer through x-ray crystallography. Grid computing has opened the door for many scientists in a big way by cutting down costs of research and scanning data in a fraction of the time it would take otherwise.
An important test that scientists can do to improve their understanding of cancer initiation, progression and treatment is by studying x-ray crystallography. "X-ray crystallography is a biophysical method to characterize the structure of proteins by determining the positions of each atom using X-ray diffraction data."(
cancer.ufl.edu) There are several steps in this process which includes crystallizing the protein, collecting x-ray diffracting data, phase determination, and structural analysis. This data results in three dimensional atomic coordinates of their structure which can help find target proteins that can be used for a lead discovery in treatment of cancer. Once protein crystals are obtained single crystals are exposed to a high intensity x-ray beam. These beams diffract off planes formed by the atoms and the signals are recorded in a special detector. A picture of the mechanism and resulting products are shown below. After these results are collected the data sets are computationally analyzed and the three dimensional structure is determined. This is computational analyzing is accomplished through grid computing.
In this manner the time it takes to compute each protein sequence in x-ray crystallography is greatly reduced. This is important to cancer research because cancer cells are cells that have gone astray from normal reproduction and reproduce uncontrollably. Protein is thought to play a role in why these cells do not behave normally. It is imperative that we gain a better understanding of which protein sequences are capable of producing these malignancies. This grid computing system helps scientists better understand which proteins are either over expressed or suppressed in cancer cell, and a better understanding leads to possible treatment.
