Scientists have a long way to go in developing drugs that can effectively fight the Zika virus. Researchers at UC San Diego are taking the first step, and they're asking for the public's help.
UC San Diego researcher Jair Siqueira-Neto is originally from Brazil. He said Zika has already affected friends and family back home.
"My father, for instance, had Zika," he said. "It's really causing a huge burden in Brazil, my home country. I really feel there is a need for me to contribute in a way to reduce this burden."
Thousands of cases of microcephaly in Brazil have been reportedly linked with Zika. In these cases, babies are born with unusually small heads due to viral infection during pregnancy. There is currently no drug or vaccine to combat the virus.
The race is on to develop effective treatments, and Siqueira-Neto plans to test tens of thousands of potential treatments using a drug-screening robot in his lab.
But first, he’ll need to identify which chemical compounds deserve a close look. To do that initial filtering, he's joining forces with researchers in Brazil and the United States to use a virtual drug-screening platform hosted by IBM called OpenZika.
The virtual drug screening process demands take a lot of computing power. Siqueira-Neto says anyone can help by donating unused processing power on their computers or Android smartphones.
"They would have to download the software for their computer or an app for their Android phones, and simply say whenever the processor is not working for things I need, it will be used to do the calculations for the project,” he said.
Developing a drug for Zika could take 10 years or more. But Siqueira-Neto said if enough people pitch in at this early stage in the process, scientists could find effective Zika drugs sooner rather than later.
To find out more about contributing to OpenZika, click here.
