November 16, 2014 marked our 10th anniversary and over the last few weeks we've been celebrating the key scientific breakthroughs you've helped us to achieve since 2004. We've also been encouraging you to get involved in our competition and introduce new volunteers to World Community Grid - scroll down to see who the lucky winners are!
10 years of success
We've highlighted a success story each week since October. If you didn't get the chance to read the blogs in full, here's a recap of all the projects we covered.
- Uncovering Genome Mysteries launched last month to help scientists unearth some of the hidden superpowers of the natural world by examining big genomic data. And there are many secrets out there; tiny, diverse organisms are continually evolving and they can undoubtedly provide valuable insights into how to deal with serious humanitarian issues such as drug-resistant pathogens, pollution and energy shortages. The project is expected to power 20 quadrillion genetic comparisons of previously unstudied organisms.
- The Clean Energy Project was launched in 2008 to help advance the development of solar cells from carbon-based materials - a cheaper more flexible alternative to traditional silicon-based techniques. So far, we've helped researchers identify over 35,000 compounds with the potential to double carbon-based solar cell efficiency. There are many more to explore that could efficiently generate electricity from sunlight and provide a cheap power source for more than two billion people worldwide without access to electricity.
- Help Fight Childhood Cancer was set up to tackle neuroblastoma - one of the most common and dangerous forms of cancer in children. World Community Grid volunteers powered the screening of over three million drug candidates for the disease - and helped researchers identify seven that showed great potential for development.
- Help Defeat Cancer launched in 2006 to help develop a new tool for diagnosing and treating cancers with precision medicine. Thanks to the support of more than 200,000 World Community Grid volunteers, researchers were able to study over 100,000 patient tissue samples and proved that computer-based analysis can help doctors identify subtle patterns in individual cancers and tailor effective treatment for their patients.
- Discovering Dengue Drugs - Together ran on World Community Grid from 2007 to 2009. The project's mission was to search for drugs to help combat dengue - a devastating tropical disease that threatens 40% of the world's population. World Community Grid volunteers powered a computer-based discovery approach and the identification of several proteins that show potential to stop the mosquito-borne disease in its tracks.
And the winners are...
A huge thank you to everyone who got involved in our decade of discovery competition to recruit new volunteers to World Community Grid. We're delighted to announce that our top three recruiters who will be featured on worldcommunitygrid.org in December are:
- Jawor
- Roadranner
- Luiza Jipescu
Keep an eye on our News section and or come back to this page in December to check out their profiles. Jawor, Roadranner, and Luiza Jipescu will also win an exclusive "Ask Me Anything" Q&A session with the World Community Grid team, and a special limited-edition World Community Grid prize.
Our top 20 World Community Grid Champions
Check out our leaderboard to see if your efforts won you a spot in the top 20 recruiters. If so, you'll also receive a special limited-edition World Community Grid prize.
We still need your help
Even though this competition has closed, we're still relying on you to spread the word and raise awareness of the cutting-edge research that World Community Grid powers in health, poverty and sustainability.
We're hugely encouraged by what we've achieved together so far. But there's so much more we can do to tackle the biggest issues facing our world - so please encourage everyone you know to join World Community Grid and power another decade of discovery. Share this
registration link with them - or visit it yourself if you're not yet a member!