TSA Gets Folding

Ever since the Life With PlayStation update that we told you about last week a few of our members have been using their PS3s to ‘fold‘.  No, this isn’t some kind of console-based origami, it’s leveraging the PS3′s massive computational power in a good way: to find the cure for cancer.

It might sound far fetched but the principles are sound: proteins are biology’s workhorses — its nanomachines. Before proteins can carry out these important functions, they assemble themselves, or fold. The process of protein folding, while critical and fundamental to virtually all of biology, in many ways remains a mystery.

You can help solve that mystery, and better still, work as a team by joining the TSA Folding Team.  How?  It’s easy:

• Start up Folding@home (i.e. Life with PlayStation)
• When it has finished loading press the Triangle button
• Select ‘Current Channel’ (by pressing the X button)
• Select ‘Identity’
• Select ‘Join an Existing Team’
• Enter the number ‘78731‘ and press the Start button
• Sit back and relax (or do whatever else it is that you want to do) as your PS3 helps unlock the mysteries of protein folding.

Thanks to TheDeathAvenger and Jas-n for setting up the team, who will be giving us monthly reports as the work progresses.  You can monitor the progress of the TSA Team live on the web right here, with TheDeathAvenger and colossalblue way out in front, but you’ll be putting resources to better use if you join yourself.  For more information and discussion join our forum thread here.