Folding Forum

Just an hour ago, I was looking at the list of diseases that FAH is currently studying. And while it's an impressive list, there's one I thought I might put on the table: Crohn's disease.

I didn't know about this disease at all until about four years ago, when my best friend suddenly fell ill and had to be hospitalized. I still remember when he called me at college with his blood-work results, and broke the news that he had Crohn's. It was a wake-up call for everyone in our circle, as several of us had never even heard of the disease, let alone know what it did. It may be treatable, but it still pains me to know that a dear friend of mine has an uncurable disease. (I lost an uncle to leukemia, and a grandfather to lung cancer.) Thus, not too long ago, my fiance and I - we are both on the Penny Arcade team - recently told our friend, "Wouldn't it be awesome if Folding@Home was able to help find a cure for Crohn's?"

I'm not sure if there might be issues with studying this disease, but I felt I had to ask.

Sorry to hear that.

Fah mainly studies diseases that are at some level caused by misfolded proteins. Not sure if Crohn's falls in to that area or not. You might want to look in to that a little more.

Welcome to the forum, saphrinka.

Wiki page
Genetics

Schematic of NOD2 CARD15 gene, which is associated with certain disease patterns in Crohn's disease.Research has indicated that Crohn's disease has a strong genetic link.[30] The disease runs in families and those with a sibling with the disease are 30 times more likely to develop it than the normal population. Ethnic background is also a risk factor.

Mutations in the CARD15 gene (also known as the NOD2 gene) are associated with Crohn's disease[31] and with susceptibility to certain phenotypes of disease location and activity.[32] In earlier studies, only two genes were linked to Crohn's, but scientists now believe there are over eight genes that show genetics play a role in the disease, either directly through causation or indirectly as with a mediator variable. Anomalies in the XBP1 gene have recently been identified as a factor, pointing towards a role for the unfolded protein response pathway of the endoplasmatic reticulum in inflammatory bowel diseases.[33][34]

Seems like something f@h would be able to study, but why not ask one of the scientists? Most people on the forums, mainly talking about myself though, do not have the same insight in the projects current position and pace, I believe we're still pretty much an infant trying to walk in allot of regards and the focus mainly is on a couple of known proteins which are already well documented. This is because by studying those proteins with this software, it is possible to match previous findings and ensure the software is working correctly before tackling totally new one's.

As I said, my understanding is limit compared to those involved, and your best bet would be one of the members of the PG.

I think we're a bit beyond working on known proteins.

You see, I'm runing behind..

Aren't there still checks going on continuesly though back and fort, I'm not saying we're studying the same proteins as 4 years ago, would be hard to base 63 papers on the same proteine I just treid to indicate that as I understand it's not yet possible to just take any desease/proteine and let the software loose on it?

I'm going to pm Vijah since I'm curieus now as well how far along we actually are, and I'm not educated enough to make much sence of the released papers or their implications on the subject of being able to tackle anything at will now