XP-VR joins THE FIGHT against Coronavirus

XP-VR have joined the fight to help the scientific community learn more about (and hopefully discover a vaccine) for the COVID-19 virus currently causing a world-wide health pandemic.

The x7 VR gaming here at XPVR Virtual Reality Experience are powered by very powerful, custom built gaming computers with lots of 'beefy' processing power. 

The powerful computers sit unused in-store when customers are not playing, so their processing power has been updated to the Folding@Home project to support the wordlwide effort to learn more about how the Coronavirus (COVID-19) behaves.

The project allows computers such as the ones at XPVR to undertake complex scientific simulations remotely, before sending the results back to the scientific community. This removes the need for one central super-computer as many thousands of individual computers located all around the world contribute their processing power collectively to take on tasks.

The project simulations that the computers are asked to complete involve manipulating proteins, or 'folding'  them together in different combinations to see how they react with each other. Viruses also have proteins that they use to suppress our immune systems and reproduce themselves. To help tackle coronavirus, the scientific community want to understand how these viral proteins work and how they can design therapeutics to stop them.

When customers are playing, the computers stop working on their research simulations and prioritise the customer's VR session to deliver an incredible, cutting-edge virtual reality gaming experience. Once the customer stops playing, the computer then switches back automatically to continue with the vital research work they were doing. 

The collective processing power of XPVR's powerful gaming computers are working 24/7, around the clock to help with this vital COVID-19 research project.

The Science

Proteins help fight disease by first assembling themselves or "folding". When proteins misfold, there can be serious health consequences. If we better understand protein misfolding we can design drugs and therapies to combat these illnesses.

The Software

Folding@home software aids research by simulating protein folding. The calculations are immense so we break them into small "work units" and pass them to individual computers like yours to solve.

Folding@home computers assemble data from thousands of work units into meaningful answers to important scientific questions

If you'd like to contribute to the project or learn more, visit the Folding@Home project website for more information.

If you are unable contribute processing power, you can help prevent the spread of the virus by washing your hands and taking the appropriate social distance precautions etc. Doing so helps sustain the NHS and buys scientists time to hunt for therapies.