View source for Grid.org

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'''grid.org''' was a website and online community established in 2001 for [[cluster computing]] and [[grid computing]] software users.  For six years it operated several different [[volunteer computing]] projects that allowed members to donate their spare computer cycles to worthwhile causes.  In 2007, it became a community for [[Open-source model|open source]] cluster and grid computing software. After around 2010 it redirected to other sites.

== Volunteer computing projects ==
From its establishment in April 2001 until April 27, 2007,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://forum.grid.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=599007#599007|title=All Good Things Come To An End…|publisher=grid.org|accessdate=2007-04-26}}{{deadlink|date=December 2016}}</ref> grid.org was the website and organization that ran [[distributed computing]] projects such as the [[United Devices]] Cancer Research Project, led by Jikku Venkat, Ph.D and was sponsored philanthropically by [[United Devices]] (UD) and members participated in [[volunteer computing]] by running the UD Agent software (version 3.0).

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! Timeline of projects hosted by grid.org
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  bar:cancer color:yellow width:25 mark:(line,white) align:center fontsize:S
  from:04/01/2001   till:07/01/2002    text:"Cancer (Phase 1)"  color:yellow1
  from:07/01/2002   till:end    text:"Cancer (Phase 2)"    color:yellow2

  bar:hpf color:blue1 width:25 mark:(line,white) align:center fontsize:S
  from:11/16/2004  till:07/03/2006   text:"Human Proteome Folding (Phase 1)"

  bar:patriot  color:green1 width:25 mark:(line,white) align:center  fontsize:S
  from:01/22/2002   till:02/14/2002  text:"Anthrax Research"

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  from:02/05/2003  till:09/15/2003   text:"Smallpox Research Grid"

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  from:start   till:04/01/2001  text:"Hidden Markov Modeling"

  bar:webload color:pink  width:25  mark:(line,white) align:center fontsize:S
  from:05/01/2001   till:08/01/2002  text:"Webload testing"
</timeline>
|}

=== Cancer Research Project ===
[[Image:United Devices.PNG|thumb|250px|UD Agent running the LigandFit software for Cancer Research phase 2.]]
The United Devices Cancer Research Project, which began in 2001, was seeking possible drugs for the treatment of [[cancer]] using [[distributed computing]].<ref name="bbc-cancer">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1255804.stm|title=Screensaver aids cancer fight|publisher=BBC News|date=2001-04-03|accessdate=2006-08-20}}</ref>  There were around 150,000 users in the United States and 170,000 in Europe along with hundreds of thousands more in other parts of the world.

The project was an alliance of several companies and organisations:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://grid.org/projects/cancer/participants.htm|title=Cancer Project Participants|publisher=grid.org|accessdate=2006-08-20|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927132915/http://grid.org/projects/cancer/participants.htm|archivedate=2007-09-27}}</ref>
*[[United Devices|United Devices Inc.]]
*[[National Foundation for Cancer Research]]
*[[Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford|University of Oxford Department of Chemistry]]
*Donors of molecular research

United Devices released the cancer research [[screensaver]] under the principle of using spare computing power. The program, which could be set to run continually, used "virtual screening" to find possible interactions between molecules and target proteins, i.e. a drug. These molecules ([[ligand]]s) are sent to the host computer's UD Agent. When these molecules dock successfully with a target protein this interaction is scored for further investigation.

The research consisted of two phases:

* Phase 1 tested over 3 billion drug-like molecules against 12 proteins which were known to be suitable targets for anti-cancer drugs. It used the "THINK" software for the simulation of the molecular interactions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/cancer/thinkcalculations.html|title=Think phase 1 computation|publisher=University of Oxford|accessdate=2006-08-20|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060827052411/http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/cancer/thinkcalculations.html|archivedate=2006-08-27}}</ref>
* Phase 2, using the "LigandFit" software developed by [[Accelrys]] to model interactions, sought to refine the Phase 1 data to produce a more manageable list of drug candidates for testing that would require experimental collaborators, including some from industry.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://grid.org/projects/cancer/ligandfit.htm|title=LigandFit explained|publisher=grid.org|accessdate=2006-08-20|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927140054/http://grid.org/projects/cancer/ligandfit.htm|archivedate=2007-09-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/cancer/phaseii.html|title=Phase 2 of the Project|publisher=University of Oxford|accessdate=2006-08-20|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060924201756/http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/cancer/phaseii.html|archivedate=2006-09-24}}</ref>

=== Human Proteome Folding Project, phase 1 ===
{{main|Human Proteome Folding Project}}
The [[IBM]]-sponsored ''Human Proteome Folding Project'' ("HPF"), phase 1, was announced on November 16, 2004 and was completed July 3, 2006.  The project operated simultaneously on both grid.org and the IBM's [[World Community Grid]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://grid.org/projects/hpf/about.htm|title=About The Human Proteome Folding Project|publisher=grid.org|year=2004|accessdate=2006-08-20|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070623043412/http://www.grid.org/projects/hpf/about.htm|archivedate=2007-06-23}}</ref>

It made use of the "Rosetta" software to predict the structure of human proteins in order to help predict the function of proteins.  This information may someday be used to help cure a variety of diseases and genetic defects.

According to an announcement on the grid.org forums,<ref name="Grid.org Status 10 Jul 2006">{{cite web|url=http://forum.grid.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=19636|title=Grid.org Status|date=2006-07-10|publisher=grid.org forums|first=Robby|last=Brewer|accessdate=2006-08-20|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061206020142/http://forum.grid.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=19636|archivedate=2006-12-06}}</ref> after the HPF1 project was completed it was left to continue running on grid.org until August 9, 2006.<ref name="Take responsibility">{{cite web|url=http://forum.grid.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=19709|title=Take responsibility|date=2006-07-17|publisher=grid.org forums|accessdate=2006-08-20}}{{deadlink|date=December 2016}}</ref>  During that time, members whose computers were configured to run this project got new work and spent computing resources calculating a result, but the result was returned to grid.org for points only—it was not used for scientific research.

The status of the Human Proteome Folding Project caused some discussion on the grid.org forums. Most members wanted to see all available computing power directed toward the still-active cancer project,<ref name="Take responsibility"/> but UD representative Robby Brewer asserted that "some [users] like the screensaver".<ref name="Grid.org Status 10 Jul 2006"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://forum.grid.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=19928|title=Grid.org status|date=2006-08-21|publisher=grid.org forums|first=Robby|last=Brewer|accessdate=2006-08-20|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061206020132/http://forum.grid.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=19928|archivedate=2006-12-06}}</ref> As noted above, in the end the redundant HPF1 work on grid.org was halted.<ref name="Take responsibility"/>

=== Smallpox Project ===
The ''Smallpox Research Grid'' was a part of United Devices "Patriot Grid" initiative to fight biological terrorism.  This project helped analyze potential drug candidates for a medical therapy in the fight against smallpox virus. It made use of the "LigandFit" software (that had already been used by phase 2 of the Cancer Research project), but with a specialized set of target molecules that targeted the [[smallpox]] virus.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://grid.org/projects/smallpox/about.htm|title=About The Smallpox Project|publisher=grid.org|accessdate=2006-08-20|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927132908/http://grid.org/projects/smallpox/about.htm|archivedate=2007-09-27}}</ref>

The partners of the project included [[University of Oxford]], the [[University of Western Ontario]], [[Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center]], [[Essex University]], [[Evotec OAI]], [[Accelrys]], and [[IBM]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://grid.org/projects/smallpox/participants.htm|title=Smallpox participants|publisher=grid.org|accessdate=2006-08-20|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927132857/http://grid.org/projects/smallpox/participants.htm|archivedate=2007-09-27}}</ref>

The [[World Community Grid]] largely began because of the success of this project.{{Citation needed |date= November 2013}}

=== Anthrax Project ===
The ''Anthrax Research Project'' was a part of the United Devices "Patriot Grid" initiative to fight biological terrorism.  It made use of the "LigandFit" software (that had already been used by phase 2 of the Cancer Research project), but with a specialized set of target molecules that targeted the advanced stages of [[anthrax]] bacterial infection.

The project was operated from January 22, 2002 until February 14, 2002 and ended after a total of 3.57 billion molecules had finished screening.  The results of the research project were transmitted to biological scientists in order to finish the screening of the computational simulations.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://grid.org/projects/anthrax/index.htm|title=The Anthrax Research Project|publisher=grid.org|accessdate=2006-08-20|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060910233817/http://grid.org/projects/anthrax/index.htm|archivedate=2006-09-10}}</ref>

The partners of the project included [[Oxford University]].

=== HMMER Project ===
The [[HMMER| HMMER Genetic Research]] project made use of the [[Hidden Markov model]] to search for patterns in genetic DNA sequences.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://grid.org/projects/hmmr/|title=Genetic Testing with HMMR|publisher=grid.org|accessdate=2006-08-20|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927140045/http://grid.org/projects/hmmr/|archivedate=2007-09-27}}</ref>

=== Webload Project ===
The ''Web Performance Testing'' project was operated as a commercial opportunity with select [[web hosting]] providers in order to help them test the scalability of their server infrastructures under periods of high-demand.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://grid.org/projects/web_test/|title=Web Performance Testing|publisher=grid.org|accessdate=2006-08-20|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927132846/http://grid.org/projects/web_test/|archivedate=2007-09-27}}</ref>

== Open source grid community ==
In November 2007, grid.org was repositioned by [[Univa]] as a community to allow users to interact and discuss open source cluster and grid related topics.<ref name="from2008">{{cite web|url=http://www.grid.org/about-grid-org |title=About grid.org |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080120042413/http://www.grid.org/about-grid-org |archivedate=January 20, 2008 |accessdate=November 11, 2013 }}</ref>  It allowed users to download, get support for, contribute to, and report issues about the open source Globus Toolkit based products offered by Univa.
Over 100,000 unique visitors were reported in 2008.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Grid.org Open Source HPC Community Hits Growth Milestone |work=Press release |publisher=Univa |date=January 14, 2009 |url=http://www.grid.org/content/gridorg-open-source-hpc-community-hits-growth-milestone |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090121052235/http://www.grid.org/content/gridorg-open-source-hpc-community-hits-growth-milestone |archivedate=January 21, 2009 |accessdate=November 11, 2013 }}</ref>
Around mid 2010 it redirected to Unicluster.org (a Univa product) and by 2012 it redirected to Univa's main site.

== See also ==
*[[List of volunteer computing projects]]

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grid.Org}}
[[Category:Distributed computing projects]]
[[Category:Defunct websites]]
[[Category:Computing websites]]
[[Category:Internet properties established in 2001]]
[[Category:Research projects]]
[[Category:Internet properties disestablished in 2007]]