Kentucky computers to fight cancer.

A handful of Kentucky districts have found one more use for computers.

Cancer researchers are borrowing school computers during idle periods to help develop potential cancer-fighting therapies with fewer side effects than traditional chemotherapy. It may take up to 10 years to develop new therapies, but the ability to harness multiple computers expedites the process, says Cary Peterson executive director of information technology in Jefferson County Schools, a participating district.

In the first-of-its-kind program the initiative entails placing a computer program on the hard drive of school computers powerful enough to handle the massive data-crunching required for virtual screening, Peterson says.

Molecular screening is intense work, explains Dr. John Trent of the University of Louisville's cancer center. It takes one computer 38 years to screen a molecular library that contains the millions of compounds that need to be tested for new drug development, but 1,000 computers can complete the task in 11 days, calculates Brian Gupton, CEO of Dataseam, the company that developed the program.

The Kentucky Dataseam Initiative is the first school-based virtual screening program in the U.S.

The Dataseam Initiative will not affect the time that computers are available for use by students because the program runs only when a computer is idle. Computers in the program will be left on overnight for additional data crunching.

This month, researchers will tap into 200 Macintosh OS-Xs in classrooms, labs and administrators' offices in Jefferson County Schools. It's a fraction of the district's total computer inventory, but not all computers are powerful enough to handle the screening task. Two other Kentucky districts have committed 170 computers and up to 12,000 school computers throughout the state may be offered for the cause. Gupton says.

Gupton says the program will inspire scientists and offer opportunity for curriculum development. Researchers, for example, can visit classrooms to discuss science and technology careers or illustrate molecular structure for students.