Researchers are hoping that a grid computing initiative could help to find a cure for the Aids virus.

The FightAids@Home project has been launched by the San Diego-based Scripps Research Institute and the World Community Grid.

The grid, an IBM-sponsored project that allows computer users to donate part of their PC’s power to scientific research projects, will use its computational power to search for new therapies for the virus.

The system has a processing capacity equivalent to one of the world’s top 10 supercomputers, says Stanley Litow, president of the IBM International Foundation.

‘It is really simple to get involved with. Go to www.worldcommunitygrid.org and download a piece of software onto your computer. Then, when you’re not using your computer, its computational power is transferred to the World Community Grid, and collected with all the other personal computers in it,’ he said.

‘Together they represent a virtual supercomputer, the power of which is used for humanitarian purposes, and in this case the FightAids@Home project.’

IBM has donated the hardware, software, technical services and expertise for the grid’s infrastructure, and provides hosting, maintenance and support for it.

The project will look at a variety of potential cures, a process that requires huge numbers of calculations that will eventually allow the Scripps Institute to develop chemical strategies that will be effective in the treatment of HIV Aids, says Litow.

‘It is designed to help individuals affected by HIV Aids in the face of evolving resistance of the virus to existing treatments, which will ultimately fail as it adapts to medicines the patient is taking,’ he said.

Litow says the grid has about 170,000 members, and aims to grow this figure to 500,000 in the next few years.

‘Potentially, that will make us comparable not just with a top-10 supercomputer, but with one of the top five. Ultimately it could become the most powerful in the world,’ he said.