IBM facilitates drugs research for dengue by Chicago and Texas universities

18 September 2007

New Delhi: Hoping to halt the spread of deadly infectious diseases now threatening to reach epidemic proportions around the world, a new research effort was launched today by IBM, the University of Texas Medical Branch and the University of Chicago to search for drugs that may one day cure or treat dengue fever, West Nile encephalitis and a host of related diseases including Yellow Fever and Hepatitis C.

Dengue fever is found primarily in Asia (including India) and in areas around the equator line. Similarly, the West Nile virus affects Africa, Asia and Europe and has now moved into the United States. Both have no known drug treatments, are primarily passed to adults and children by infected mosquitoes, and are responsible for millions of illnesses, as well as thousands of deaths each year.

In India specifically, dengue fever has affected more than 46,000 children and adults between 2001 and 2006 of which almost 700 were fatal. Delhi and Rajasthan alone accounted for 43 per cent of the cases.

The project, "Discovering Dengue Drugs - Together," will use the vast computational research power of World Community Grid, with the power equivalent to one of the world''s top five supercomputers, yet comprising individual volunteers who donate their idle computer time.

Calculations will be run on World Community Grid to find the best combinations of drug
molecules that will inhibit the replication of the viruses that cause dengue, West Nile encephalitis, Yellow fever and Hepatitis C. Once these are identified, researchers can begin testing these drugs to determine their effectiveness.

"Viral diseases such as dengue continue to be a serious public health concern around the world because there are no known drugs to effectively treat them," says Dr Maharaj Kishan Bhan, secretary, department of biotechnology, ministry of science and technology, government of India.