Want to help scientists discover and develop cures for cancers, infectious diseases, and neurological diseases? Put your powerful computer’s spare or idle processing capabilities to good use.

COVID-19 has just been added to the list of illnesses that you can help research using the Folding@home distributed computing project.

What is Protein Folding?

Proteins are the basic building block of biological organisms. They enable our bodies to function normally. Each protein serves a specific function and doing so requires it to take on a particular shape, also known as a “fold.”

When proteins fold incorrectly, various diseases can result. For example, misfolding proteins may clump together in the brain and sometimes cause the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Learn more…

Folding@home

Scientists make models to study how proteins fold, understand the effects they have on our health, and develop cures for diseases. Anyone with a Mac, Windows, or Linux computer can volunteer its idle time or extra processing abilities to assist with these investigations.

The Pande Lab at Stanford University has been leading this research project since 2000 and developed the Folding@home software you can download and install.

How to Get Started

The FAH Control utility that controls and monitors Folding@home isn’t very attractive in design but serves its function well. Alternatively, you can use the Web Client, which connects to the process running on your computer and displays a more pleasing interface in your web browser.

In addition to volunteering your computer for this opportunity, you can get credit for your contribution. The million participants who have participated in this Folding@home project over the last 20 years have aggregated their progress among thousands of teams.

I started folding in 2004 and welcome you to join me on Team MacOS X (1971), currently 30th in the world as graciously tracked by EXTREME Overclocking. Make sure to get a passkey, too, to get point bonuses for submitting a work unit before the deadline.

If you’re interested in this opportunity but having trouble getting started or want to validate that your computer is a good fit, give me a call or book a session with me on Zoom. I’m happy to help you get started.