---
title: "World Community Grid"
chunk: 7/7
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Community_Grid"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:26:35.746920+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

FightAIDS@Home (launched November 19, 2005) was World Community Grid's second project and its first to target a single disease.  Each individual computer processes one potential drug molecule and tests how well it would dock with HIV protease, acting as a protease inhibitor. Scripps Research Institute published its first peer-reviewed scientific paper about the results of FightAIDS@Home on April 21, 2007. This paper explains that the results up to that point will primarily be used to improve the efficiency of future FightAIDS@Home calculations.

=== FightAIDS@Home Phase 2 ===
FightAIDS@Home Phase 2 (launched September 30, 2015) is looking more closely at the results of Phase 1. The project has two goals in the early experiments; the simulation architecture is functioning correctly and giving reliable results, and using BEDAM and AutoDock together provides better results than using just BEDAM or AutoDock.

=== Microbiome Immunity Project ===
Microbiome Immunity Project (launched August 2017) is a study of proteins in bacteria located in and on the human body; the human microbiome, which comprises around 3 million separate bacterial genes. By studying bacterial genes, researchers can determine their individual shapes, which in turn dictate the function of the bacteria. Collaborative institutions includes the University of California San Diego, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and the Simons Foundation's Flatiron Institute.

=== Help Stop TB ===
Help Stop TB was launched in March 2016 to help combat tuberculosis, a disease caused by a bacterium that is evolving resistance to currently available treatments. The computations of this project target mycolic acids in the bacterium's protective coat, simulating the behaviour of these molecules to better understand how they offer protection to the bacteria.

=== Smash Childhood Cancer ===

Launched in January 2017, the Smash Childhood Cancer project builds on the work from the Help Fight Childhood Cancer project by looking for drug candidates targeting additional childhood cancers. Upon Dr. Akira Nakagawara's retirement in March 2020, the principal investigator changed to Dr. Godfrey Chan, who was one of the original members of the Smash Childhood Cancer team. Additionally, PRDM14 and Fox01 have been added as new targets for investigation. An inhibitor of the osteopontin protein was modeled.

== See also ==
BOINC
Folding@home
List of volunteer computing projects
World community

== References ==

== External links ==
Official website