Introduction

     As a part of our Evolution class at Rockhurst University, we have joined a grid-computing network to work on developments in fighting AIDS.  Grid-computing utilizes most recent technology to help progress modern research, by connecting multiple computers to share the work load of running a given program.  By running a program on a computer that has a greater amount of memory, the computer is able to perform more calculations per second.  By combing multiple PCs, grid-computing is able to maximize memory and therefore performance capabilities, thus projects that would normally take many years to run on one computer can now be completed in a much shorter period of time.
     For our project we joined the World Community Grid, specifically the project FightAIDS@Home. FightAIDS@Home was started in 2002 and joined the World Community Grid three years later.  It was the first grid-computing project ever launched in the biomedical field (http://fightaidsathome.scripps.edu/index.html).
This project researches new drug therapies for HIV by specifically focusing on HIV-1 protease inhibitor blocking problems.
     AIDS is global health problem that affects people of all ages in all parts of the world. In 2010 alone there were approximately 1.8 million AIDS deaths worldwide (http://www.who.int/hiv/data/2011_epi_core_en.png).  AIDS stands for Acute Immunodeficiency Syndrome which is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).  HIV is a chronic disease that lowers the T-cell count in the body, thus weakening the immune system and making the person more susceptible to illnesses. HIV can progress to AIDS and lead to death.

      HIV is a retrovirus that inserts its RNA into a host cell.  HIV contains three important components that help it infect cells: viral RNA, integrase, and reverse transcriptase.  Once the RNA is released into the cell's cytoplasm, an enzyme called reverse transcriptase allows the transcription of viral RNA into DNA.  Then, the reverse transcriptase transcribes a complementary strand to the newly formed viral DNA.  The double-stranded viral DNA is inserted into the host genome via the enzyme integrase.  Now the virus can use the host transcription and translation machinery to reproduce until the host dies.  
     HIV infects T-cells in the human body which is the mechanism for developing AIDS.  Initially there is a high infection rate of T-cells, but this drops as the body starts to fight the infection.  As the body's supply of T-cells is exhausted, the body begins to develop a weakened immune system.  In the second stage of HIV infection the body has the least amount of T-cells and from this point on HIV progresses into AIDS.

                   This video from Avert.org explains the general mechanism of HIV infection and proliferation.

We chose this project because of the importance of AIDS research.  Even though we are just one amongst the hundreds of thousands of computers working on this project, our computer is helping in the fight against AIDS.

- Kelsey Bennett, Mary Schletzbaum and Jay Sheth