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- When you think of a super computer,
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you probably picture a bunch of server racks,
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covered in blinking lights in a lab somewhere.
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But did you know that you easily make
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your home PC part of a super computer, for free
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and for a good cause.
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The subject of today's video
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is a project called [email protected]
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and no, we're not talking about laundry.
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[email protected] started at Stanford University
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but is now run from multiple sites around the world
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and the goal is to research protein folding.
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But how does it do this home computers
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and what the heck is protein folding anyway?
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Well, stay with me here
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because protein isn't just the stuff
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that weightlifters drink by the bucket full.
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Your body uses all sorts of different proteins
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for everything from building muscle fibers
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to intercellular signaling and the crucial thing
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to remember about proteins is that their function
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depends heavily on their shape,
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which is where the term 'folding' comes in.
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After a protein is assembled it has to fold
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into its proper shape to be useful,
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kinda like how you can't throw
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a piece of paper across the room
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until it's in the correct shape.
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I choose ball.
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But unlike a paper airplane,
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which you can just follow simple instructions for,
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protein folding is much more complicated.
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You see, proteins are made up of 20 different
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kinds of small units, called amino acids
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and while they're structurally similar,
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all 20 of them have different side chains that,
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as the name implies, stick of to the side of the molecule.
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When you connect a bunch of amino acids together,
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linearly to form a protein, these side chains interact
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with each other in ways that cause a protein to fold,
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depending on how their shaped
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and their electrical properties as well.
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As you can imagine, the more amino acids,
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the more complicated these interactions become
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and the typical protein might be hundreds
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of amino acid residues long.
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And of course, it's critical for a protein to end up
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in the correct shape or conformation
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because otherwise it couldn't function.
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For example, cells have proteins on their surfaces
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that serve as signaling receptors
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and they only function because they are shaped
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in a certain way that allows them to bind
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with this signaling molecules
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or other proteins from outside the cell,
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kind of like two puzzle pieces coming together.
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The TLDR is that understanding how proteins fold
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has very important implications in medicine.
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For example, understanding how viral proteins interact
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with cell membranes to invade cells
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is critical to finding treatments to some viral diseases.
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So the team behind the project
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is currently using [email protected] to research
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the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19.
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The better we can understand what parts of the virus
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especially the ones that bind to human cells,
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could be attacked with the drugs,
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the more likely it is that we can develop medicines
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that can treat or cure the disease.
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But anyways, this is tech quickie not biology quickie
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so let's tie this all back to the [email protected] project.
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It turns out that simulating protein folding patterns
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is very difficult to computationally.
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In nature, proteins fold in a tiny fraction of a second
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but it can take years of computer time to sort out
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exactly how a protein will fold,
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given a certain amino acid sequence
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and a big part of the problem
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is that we don't yet fully understand
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the mechanisms behind protein folding.
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So the idea behind [email protected],
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is to leverage spare home computing power
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in order to solve these difficult problems.
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All you need to do to participate like I am,
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is install a client onto you home PC
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from the [email protected] website.
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The program will then give your system
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part of a folding simulation to run
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and then send back to the program servers.
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You can specify how much of your PC spare computer muscle
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to use, depending on how much you want it to affect
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your power bill and you can also choose whether
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to run the simulations only when the system is idle
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or also when you're actively using them
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or maybe you choose depending on how hot
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your house is already.
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If you have a high-end graphics card,
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you're gonna help even more.
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The highly parallel nature of GPU architecture,
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which you can learn more about up here,
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can really speed up simulations
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but you also don't need super fancy hardware.
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The current version of the client support CPUs
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all the way back to Pentium four.
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Now, it might seem like the impact one system makes
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on the project is minuscule,
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but all that spare computing power really adds up
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and taking collectively the [email protected] network
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is up there with the world's top super computers.
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This has enabled real scientific breakthroughs
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that would've been much harder to reach otherwise.
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Hundreds of scientific papers have been published
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from the project's findings and have also been useful
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for those involved in drug discovery.
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So, if you can spare a bit of power,
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download the [email protected] app today.
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Join the LTD Folding team and make a difference,
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your PC might even wind up finding
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a cure for the coronavirus,
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which could not only safe lives
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but also finally put an end to all
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these people hoarding toilet paper.
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What's up with that anyway?
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Geez, it doesn't make you poo more, you poo the same amount.
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Anyway, this video is brought to by FreshBooks.
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when you sign up for a paid plan
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at freshbooks.com/techquickie.
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So thanks for watching guys,
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if you liked this video, give it a thumbs up,
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get subscribed and hit us up in the comment section
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with your suggestions for topics
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that we should cover in the future.
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