Are we doing any real work?

[PY 222]

I don't mean burst anyone's bubble in this project but I have been asking myself if this project is worth something or are we just crunching junk?

I personally have just started serious crunching on this project about 1 month back and I don't know much about this project to offer any views about it but from what I can read in the D2OL forums, this project has been idling for a while.

Check out this thread over at D2OL Forums (http://www.d2ol.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000345;p=1) and let me know what's going on as I don't want to be crunching useless information.

[PCZ]

I wouldn't say it has been idle.
It just takes a long time to design drugs.

[CaptainMooseInc]

Devil's Advocate:

You can always come to Find-A-Drug, we've found lots of promising stuff over there!!!

:D

-Jeff

[ronbo54]

My daughter was involved in cancer research during college (and a different cancer project since). She worked on the project for a couple years and it's just in the beginning phases.

PCZ is right - research takes a lot of time and researchers are reluctant to discuss preliminary data for many different reasons.

Problem here seems to be the same as UD Grid - lack of updated communication/feedback.

Probably have found as much or more here as FAD just different ways communication.

I like the client here and UD Grid better than FAD so that's where I crunch.

I had the same doubts in the past about DF and GAH - even left DC for a year. Hopefully something good comes of these projects and if the boxen are being left on anyway they might as well be doing some good.

[tpdooley]

I haven't had great luck finding answers to my questions about D2OL, and none of my requests or suggestions posted in the quoted D2OL thread have led to a single response out of the D2OL science/stats folks. I appologize if my bringing that thread back to life made members of this team that are donating more than the single machine I have crunching D2OL as BennyRop - question their contributions.

Is now the time to mention that it's a Secret ARSian Ploy(tm) to get you discouraged and not overtake them? /e ducks.

Team Norway's requests fell on deaf ears; my requests have fallen on deaf ears - perhaps as a Team, you can find a way to motivate Wolfgang to share details on progress and answer questions once a week. (I feel way too frustrated at the moment to email Wolfgang in a way that would get useful results.) If someone can find a way of getting him to communicate frequently on the boards with a technique short of car battery-jumper cabled-to-his-gonads - there's going to be a lot of very appreciative folks.

*-Thomas P. Dooley
aka BennyRop

[Mustard]

The real issue here isn't about research for drug design taking time, it's rather about a project manager/team not having the common courtesy to show a little public appreciation and also to spend a little effort to let the *donors* know a little of what is going on. Sort of like trying to build a "family" atmosphere to to speak. Otherwise as we have seen with other DC projects, people get bored, fed-up/whatever, and just move on. And also unfortunately, this isn't the only instance of this phenomenom in DC land as it seems to be getting more and more common. :(

[Jeff]

I agree... I'm getting tired of the whole DC scene in general. :( I've just hit 100,000 candidates and I'm thinking of just calling it quits for now. I've tried just about every project out there and none of them seem to hold my interest very long. I really wanted to get into FaD but the client just doesn't feel right to me. Maybe I'll give it a better try and see if that makes me want to keep playing a while longer. :shrug:

[IronBits]

When I get bored... I just leave the clients running and just ignore them. In a month or so, when my interest peaks a little, I check around and am glad that I left them running. :D

[PY 222]

Originally posted by IronBits
When I get bored... I just leave the clients running and just ignore them. In a month or so, when my interest peaks a little, I check around and am glad that I left them running. :D

That is what I would usually do as well, but the reason why I brought up this topic is because of the lack of response from the Project Admins.

I mean, come on, how hard does it take to reply to simple answers or even to say a "Hi, we are still crunching this Candidate and soon we will be crunching Candidate X".


Its the lack of response from the people managing this project that gets on my nerves.

[Bok]

Guys,

I just got a very speedy response back from Wolfgang Hinz,

please be patient and watch the forums next week :)

I've asked if it is ok to post what he told me.

Oh and this is my 1000th post!!

Bok :D

[Bok]

Update, this is Wolfgang's response to my email


The project is indeed running well and I have a meeting on Tuesday with
Management to discuss staffing for a client upgrade. Based on the
meeting on Tuesday I will write a more extensive update in the forums.

A sneak preview: We will probably have somebody in house by mid to end
January to do the client/server update.

Also we hope to have some result back from collaborators at
NCI-Frederick by then. The collaborator is testing the hits of our
Anthrax screen in the laboratory on anthrax cultures.

I hope this helps, please keep an eye on the forum Tuesday/Wednesday
next week for further details.

Bok

So keep on crunching!!!

[PY 222]

Well, that is indeed interesting.

I'll keep an eye on the forums next week to see if this will come true.

Thanks Wolfgang. :thumbs:

[PCZ]

I hope this means that team Norway will return to D2OL.
There is no Honour in overtaking a Sleeping Team.

[CaptainMooseInc]

No honor, yes. But another position higher is worth it. :-p

-Jeff

[Jeff]

Thanks for the information Bok. :cheers: It's nice to know that our results are actually being used for something. ;)

[Sceptic]

I hope this means that team Norway will return to D2OL. There is no Honour in overtaking a Sleeping Team.
You are absolutely right! "There is no Honour in overtaking a Sleeping Team!"
So my suggestion is that you guys lower your production to just below Team Norways.
This way you would not feel any guilt or have bad feelings or something, OK? :D

Seriously though, I think many of Team Norways members would love to start their D2OL client(s) again, but there have been promises that have not been kept earlier (V2.5, feedback,series of articles etc...) and therefore there is a "sitting on the fence..."-attitude amongst the TN members.
I think Lexx summarize the whole situation nicely in his post earlier.

It's sad to see that many chooses to leave the project, because I think it's worthwhile, but, it's like doing a great job at your workplace, but no one tells you how much they appreciate it. :rolleyes:

Sceptic aka Unreal at D2OL

[PY 222]

So, have Wolfgang reported anything the forums?

Last time I checked, it was still very dead (the forums).

[ronbo54]

He said Tuesday or Wednesday so I would be very surprised to see it today.

Very much hope it will be one of those if only to say no news yet thanks for crunching. Bok's message seems to have stopped people from leaving, but an official posting might get a lot of people back into it.

Sorry Sceptic, no way I could turn these boxen off fast enough to prevent us from passing Norway. Maybe you can come back fast enough to hold off TFY -

Or just have everyone join us here so we can stomp the cows :thumbs:

[ronbo54]

New message from Wolfgang is posted on the D2OL forum

[PY 222]

Hmm... a new stats system that is “season-based statistics”.

I wonder how would they implement that?

[Bok]

I would have thought just a rolling number based on last 3 months work or so. Fairly straightforward I think.

Bok :D

[Mustard]

Ah me, oh my................ Have to say I went and read Wolfgang's post. A little too brief, specially in regards to the season based stats thing. Could have explained what they have in mind there. As it sits, newbies here in D2OL can compete against the veterans, as there is the dual effort in Bok's stats, ie: the long haul, and the "today" stats. Today pushes the daily output, and that can be anyone who wins that, long timer or newby. As for long term total stats, I don't see how they can mod that to give newcommers an even shot to compete with the long term crunchers..... ???????? And, what is the point in it anyway. Anyone is this "hobby" knows that the long term total stats are how the teams are ranked out.

That's like little Charger Charlie that just signs on with Corporation A, and wants to be the Chairman of the Board from the git-go..... doesn't work that way in life.

Now maybe they are talking recent average credit as in the BOINC centered projects.

What he didn't mention was upgrades, like a little cheat-proofing, and some items that many have been asking for over a period of time.

But on the bright side, at least something was posted. That's better than a couple other projects presently out there.

[tpdooley]

3 months later, and no reports.. And as I'm a mere top 1000 D2oL producer - I don't seem to be worthy of having my emails to Wolfgang answered.
An email to Mr. Rothberg asking for an underling for Wolfgang that understands the science - that could answer our questions - met the same fate.

Any chance we could con you into asking for information again, Bok?

Thanks in advance..

[Bok]

Possibly,

What information are we all looking for now ? Same thing? Just an update on the status of the project etc ?

Bok

[tpdooley]

Also we hope to have some result back from collaborators at
NCI-Frederick by then. The collaborator is testing the hits of our
Anthrax screen in the laboratory on anthrax cultures.
(ref to mid to end jan)

Is the main item of interest for me - so we have some good news to prove that our time spent crunching has been worthwhile. (Or will be.. when the items we newcomers worked on get sent out to wet labs and tested..)

Any other suggestions for a few questions to add to the list?

[PY 222]

Maybe we can get ronbo to give the fellas at D2OL a :Pokes:

Paging for ronbo, please check into this thread.

[ronbo54]

Actually, I was already thinking about sending something when I saw this.

Consider them poked :Pokes:

Bok, hope you don't mind. You do so much else here :thumbs:

[Bok]

Not at all!!!

:cheers: Ronbo!

Bok

[tpdooley]

This was the response I got back from NCI-Frederick about their results from the collaboration with the d2ol project - as I posted on the d2ol forums, as well. I kinda feel lied to - although I should probably give them a few days during the workweek to explain away the fact that our "collaborating" wet labs know nothing about collaborating with us d2ol folks..

Hopefully, you'll have better luck finding out what's going on.


Dear Thomas--

I've canvassed principal investigators in our divisions and labs and
have found no one who is familiar with any studies on compounds for the
Rothberg D2OL project. We're sorry not to have been of any more help.

Cheryl

[MerePeer]

There's an interesting forum called Guest Scientists (http://www.childhooddiseases.org/cgi-tsc/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=15) over in the TSC forum. It makes me wonder if the majority of Rothberg effort is directed at TSC and not D2OL? :scratch: Wolfgang's post is the second one from the bottom, from Jan 28.

[ronbo54]

In Wolfgang Hinz's post a week after his email to Bok he mentions that they

"will be tested in the laboratories of our collaborator Dr Rehka Panchal against the Anthrax bacterium. " (possibly spelled Rekha?)

so there may have been a change in plans or NCI-Frederick only knows about Dr Panchal and not D2OL (???)

Clarification (and updates in progress) would be greatly appreciated

(I also posted this in the D2OL forum)

Still no response to my email to Wolfgang Hinz. I used the email address for him on the main D2OL pages. If I don't hear by Tuesday I'll also use the connection from the forum.

[ronbo54]

This was just posted in the D2OL forum:

"@BennyRop

I have received your mail and will respond in due time. We have received back lab results for the anthrax screen and are compiling data and comparing the theoretical with the wet-lab results at this time.

First glances at the data seem to indicate that we are operating within the limits of the technology used. More details will apear in a publication in a peer reviewed journal.

Best regards
Wolfgang Hinz"

[tpdooley]

Thanks Ronbo54, as I'm assuming your email is what prompted him to post this snippet 2.5 weeks after I sent him my email. :)

Now to wait till this article is published to find out if he means the results were terrible, or if they were great.. :)

[MerePeer]

They really don't give much feedback on the D2OL project, do they. Recall that as much as we disliked the DF engine/bandwidth/downtime, at least their staff communicated with us about their submissions and was honest about their apportionment of people time to the DC side of their research.

Over in the TSC forums we've seen a wonderful "guest scientist" thread (http://www.childhooddiseases.org/cgi-tsc/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=15) -- but makes me wonder: is TSC really the primary area of focus for Rothberg, with D2OL as more of a 'future'? and if so what amount of time, if any, is being spent on D2OL-related distributed computing scientific research? So far within the thread the only scientist to report any distributed computing activity is Wolfgang: perhaps he spends is days 50% TSC and 50% D2OL?

Next I'm reading (http://www.d2ol.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000345;p=3) a fascinating opinion comparing Sengent's software (D2OL/TSC) and THINK (FAD), starting with this quote that BennyRop posted, originally from the FAD forum I believe:

"I have spoken in the past to the people behind D2OL and we explored their suggestion of using THINK. What transpired was that given the speed of THINK it would be possible screen all the commercially available molecules they wish to consider on a couple of in-house PCs. It is not clear to me that their software has any advantages of the alternatives."

Hmm...a couple if in-house PCs??
And then a followup to that thread over in the FAD forum: (http://www.find-a-drug.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4940)
Quote:
what makes THINK so much faster than the Sengent docking engine?

I'm not sure that I can provide a proper answer to this without knowing more about the most recent version of the software used by Sengent. The short answer is that "THINK uses more intelligent algorithms", a slightly more detailed answer follows and you can find further information at http://www.treweren.com

The first generation of docking programs didn't change the shape of molecules in the most effective manner. Many like LigandFit simply take a relatively small number of conformations or shapes choosen randomly or some other way to attempt to use a representative subset. THINK considers all shapes systematically but skips conformations which do not change critical inter-atomic distances (see below).

The second generation of docking programs use constraints - such as distance restraints defined by a pharmacophore. The pharmacophore is typically 3 or 4 required interactions between the small molecule and the protein - although there may be many possible pharmacophores for each protein binding site. Such distances restraints can very quickly eliminate molecules as ligands because they do not have the ability to exhibit the required distance between interacting atoms.

Is this just propoganda along the lines of "ours is better"? What we know is we have seen updates to the THINK software over the last 12 months and I dont believe we have seen anything new from Sengent in that same period (my TSC install is dated March 2004), which would seem to support the premise that THINK has improved beyond Sengent (unless the Sengent was so much better right from the start that THINK is just catching up to it...). In fact the Treweren folks claim to have improved their algorithm most recently with the 1.25 release here (http://www.treweren.com/manuals/thinkrel-frameset.htm). So while we aren't sure if Sengent uses a "second generation of docking", we do know that Treweren does, and has improved it recently. Would it be safe to say that from these posts one could almost -- almost -- think that Sengent's docking approach was obsolete?

Kinda makes me...think.
;)

[CaptainMooseInc]

It makes me THINK a lot too. ;)

D2OL is past its prime (too bad it's not a math project otherwise that would've been a GREAT pun). If THINK could process everything D2OL has to offer in the matter of days using a small cluster 2GHz P4s, then I think D2OL runs only to give stats to stats junkies...

UD and D2OL are garbage IMHO and THINK is the only real medical project worth running out of these "big three". UD is in the game for the money and the only reason they have DC projects running is to show off their platform software to potential buyers who would like to use a grid to do their work.

-Jeff

[WolfgangHinz]

Originally posted by tpdooley
This was the response I got back from NCI-Frederick about their results from the collaboration with the d2ol project - as I posted on the d2ol forums, as well. I kinda feel lied to - although I should probably give them a few days during the workweek to explain away the fact that our "collaborating" wet labs know nothing about collaborating with us d2ol folks..

Hopefully, you'll have better luck finding out what's going on.

This is an unfortunate case of "I don't know who we have working for us".

Dr. Panchal the principal author on a recent publication in Nature: Structural & Molecular Biology vol 11 no 1 pp 67-72 and an expert at identifying small molecule inhibitors of anthrax lethal factor (the target of the D2OL study). Here are some more details about Dr. Panchal's activities at Fort Detrick.

REKHA PANCHAL ATTACKS ANTHRAX


Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., once the home of the U.S. bioweapons program, is where tons of deadly anthrax spores used to be accumulated. As one scientist recalled, this was where "they were making bombs with this stuff." But today the building around ‘Anthrax Tower’ serves as a cynosure of anthrax defense research. Now the former deadly graveyard is home to the National Cancer Institute’s Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center and of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID).

For anthrax infections, current approaches -- antibiotics and vaccines -- have serious drawbacks. Antibiotics kill anthrax bacteria but do not hinder their lethal toxin. Administer antibiotics a day too late, and the victim dies. Vaccines, meanwhile, can produce unwanted side effects, and besides, it’s hard to justify vaccinating a whole country.

The approaches fostered by Fort Detrick researchers and, now, other groups around the country focus on the weapon instead of its carrier. Anthrax bacteria spit out three proteins that combine at the cell surface. There, they slip inside and wreak their havoc, causing tissue hemorrhaging and, in a week or two, death. Knocking out one of the proteins would knock out anthrax’s kick.

One protein called anthrax lethal factor has garnered much attention. A major step toward neutralizing it came in 1998, when an NCI team probed its own database of potential anticancer compounds and found a stunning match: anthrax lethal factor. A scientist at USAMRIID, also located at Fort Detrick, had engineered nonvirulent strains to produce large amounts of lethal factor and other proteins. After "a few months playing with the toxins," he discovered how lethal factor (LF) did its dirty deed: by snapping a vital signaling protein in half, thereby mucking up intracellular communication. Preventing this enzymatic destruction with drugs that block the toxin from breaking the signaling protein is a promising approach, according to USAMRIID’s Sina Bavari, Ph.D.

Other approaches look promising as well. A second protein made by anthrax, called protective antigen, sticks to the cell surface, where it pries open a hole. The antigen then grabs two proteins - Lethal Factor and a third, similar protein - and shuttles them into the cell. Interrupting the process at any of these points would go a long way toward saving patients, says Senior Scientist Rekha Panchal, Ph.D., an NCI researcher who collaborates with Bavari. The drug discovery group, led by Panchal, is directing its attention to Anthrax and Botulin. One reason is that even when antibiotics are administered, inhalation of anthrax can be fatal because the bacteria Bacillus anthracis, releases a large amount of lethal toxin that is not neutralized by antibiotics.

On the basis of current understanding, a more direct approach would be to identify inhibitors that inactivate the lethal action of anthrax toxin. In the recent study by Panchal and colleagues, they identified and developed inhibitors of Lethal Factor. In combination with X-ray crystallographic data, molecular studies and three-dimensional database mining from the chemical repository of the National Cancer Institute, the scientists have identified additional compounds with LF inhibitory properties. Three of the compounds exhibit competitive inhibition and are being used as the basis for developing therapeutically viable inhibitors of LF.

Source: http://www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=032505080504

[Helix_Von_Smelix]

don't think that answered the original question

:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

[rsbriggs]

I guess that there are a variety of questions being asked or implied here.

1.) Are the results of D2OL actually being used in research, or are the CPU cycles being donated just wasted?

2.) If the results are being used, which results and by whom at which labs? The fact that so-and-so is doing Anthrax research, for example, doesn't necessarily tie in with D2OL results. What was posted doesn't make any explicit claims about using D2OL results in the research, at least that I can see. It may be implied, but that isn't the same as coming out and saying it is so.

3.) Is the program going to be updated and are there people actively assigned to doing so? There are claims that current algorithms are much more efficient, and there haven't been any new releases in a long time. Is the program under active development, or has it been shelved?

4.) Will the website be updated from time to time? Doesn't seem like there has been any news posted in nearly a year. There are those, including me, that are starting to get the impression that this project is dieing due to lack of interest on the part of the sponsor. It's very easy to get the feeling that the project is, for all intents and purposes, dead, but they just haven't shut off the servers yet....

===Bob Briggs

[kb9skw]

Originally posted by rsbriggs

1.) Are the results of D2OL actually being used in research, or are the CPU cycles being donated just wasted?

2.) If the results are being used, which results and by whom at which labs? The fact that so-and-so is doing Anthrax research, for example, doesn't necessarily tie in with D2OL results. What was posted doesn't make any explicit claims about using D2OL results in the research, at least that I can see. It may be implied, but that isn't the same as coming out and saying it is so.

I sent an email off to Wolfgang in order to hopefully clarify a few things.

A little while ago Wolfgang said this: "Furthermore, 400 compounds, representing the top hits from the IBS library, will be tested in the laboratories of our collaborator Dr Rehka Panchal against the Anthrax bacterium. We hope to publish results as soon as February of 2005."

What I am trying to get out of him is to clarify that the IBS library he mentions is in fact our D2OL library. I know Dr. Rekha Panchal from NCI Frederick is the collaborator that tested our anthrax lethal factor results, so it may in fact be and the above mentioned publication in Nature may be the results of our work. More cleary the above mentioned IBS Library is what was tested by Dr. Panchal.

[WolfgangHinz]

@All

I should clarify this a little more:

The compounds tested in the Nature publication by Dr. Panchal were from the NCI diversity set. A selected set of compounds from the NCI open collection.

Access to this library is granted to Universities and other not-for profit research institutions. Unfortunately the amounts are very limited and the reorder of hit compounds is not possible. For this project we have concentrated on commercially available compound libraries, most of which are available in multi-milligram quantities costing between 5 and 25 US$ per compound. The compounds send to Dr. Panchal for testing were obtained from InterBioScreen (through Princeton Biomolecular) hence the abbreviation IBS-library.

The selection of compounds tested was purely based on the computational results as well as some descriptor space limits set by currently FDA approved drugs in an effort to select compounds which are drug-like.

The full results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Wolfgang Hinz

[Fozzie]

no.

So what has all that CPU output gone into?

[WolfgangHinz]

The CPU cycles went into deciding for this target and this library (of more than 150,000 candidates) which ones should be tested. Instead of testing all 150,000 compounds we tested 400 compounds to find the best drug candidate.

[Fozzie]

Cheers for the clarification.

There were a great deal more queries being done with the D2OL engine what about all those, you have mentioned Anthrax, how are the others going?

[Jeff]

I'm affraid to ask because I enjoy this project so much but... are our computers currently doing anything worthwhile for the project? Or is this a sort of downtime?

TIA :cheers:

[Helix_Von_Smelix]

As far as i can see the question is still not answered.

All we need to know >> Is the work currently being returned by the application "D2OL" being used for the continuing benefit and advancement of the project and its goals?

:bang: :bang:

[rsbriggs]

Right. A direct answer isn't being given.

I don't want to know about the NCI diversity set, or the IBS library, or the NCI Open collection. I just want a simple explanation of what happens with the results being crunched by D2OL....

[WolfgangHinz]

Yes, the results are being used as outlined in the postings above. You crunch, we analyse and use the results to pick compounds for testing in the lab.

[rsbriggs]

Dr. Hinz, (I'm assuming the Ph.d)

Thank you. That simple, direct statement goes a long ways toward reassuring the DC community in general (and me, specifically) about the usefulness of the project.

Time to crunch some D2OL !!!!

(Edit - fix stoopid spelling mistake...)

[ronbo54]

Any information on progress with the other diseases - SARS, malaria, smallpox, ebola, etc. ?

Will the anthrax candidates we are now processing also be sent for testing at a later date?

Any progress on the new programmer?

Thanks for stopping by :cheers:

[tpdooley]

kb9skw said:

I know Dr. Rekha Panchal from NCI Frederick is the collaborator that tested our anthrax lethal factor results,

Then why did Cheryl write me back claiming that NCI Frederick's "principal investigators and labs" had no idea about a Rothberg D2oL project - and has never responded when I replied and asked specifically about Dr. Panchal?


In December, Wolfgang Hinz of the Rothberg Institute's D2OL distributed
computing project mentioned that the NCI-Frederick wet labs were doing
studies on the compounds the D2OL project found to have the best chance
of dealing with a certain aspect of Anthrax. I'd have assumed that this sentence included enough information to track down the collaborator - but for some reason, nobody at NCI Frederick decided to fess up to collaborating on an Anthrax study with us.

And why is Wolfgang Hinz posting here - when the same questions have been posted and ignored for periods ranging from weeks to months to year(s) (depending on question) on the main D2oL forums? Granted, Free-DC is one of the largest, most active, and user friendly DC forums that encourages outside team members to stop by and participate (I've a sneaking suspicion it's so people like Fozzie can figure out how to properly challenge other teams.. :) ) The Free-DCers are great people - but why were they chosen as the sole repository of the knowledge that there's a claim after NCI Frederick has disavowed all knowledge of us D2oLers - that Dr. Panchal really did screen compounds against Anthrax that the D2oL project selected? If that's what Wolfgang's posts here are supposed to be implying...

*-Thomas
aka BennyRop of TGC for DF and FaH
BennyRop of The Rebel's Haven Computer Forum with 1 measely cpu on D2oL.

[kb9skw]

Because I made mention of this thread to Charles in regards to the post made by MerePeer just above Wolfgang's. Yes I do read team forums, and when I find something I think Charles would be interested I pass it on. I can only assume Charles passed it on to Wolfy.

I am already discussing it with them about rehashing the info given above for a more direct and informative post to be in the D2OL forum. Although I think it would be best to wait till the info is actually published before adding something to the main D2OL news page.

As to why this Cheryl person from NCI Frederick did not know about D2OL, I can only assume Dr. Panchal does not discuss his work with her. :shrugs:

[IronBits]

Thanks for all the good information, as limited as it is... :thumbs:
Let's hope someone can get to the bottom of this and clear the air once and for all :cheers:

[ronbo54]

Researchers not discussing their work with others is nothing new. Happens all the time. For those waiting for a peer reviewed article, the process generally takes many months to a year or more with revisions and scheduling the publication date.

Was going to post a link to this forum at D2OL for others to get this information, but got tied up. I'll wait a day or so to see if there is going to be a more direct posting there

Thanks Nick! Always good to see you here :cheers:

[tpdooley]

d2ol bioterrorism link (http://www.d2ol.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=000020)

In the quoted email from Cheryl; she not only didn't know who it was - but couldn't find anyone that would fess up to dealing with us, either. Even after Ronbo54 reminded me that we'd actually been given a name for this collaborator - I got no further response out of NCI Frederick. It sure seems like awfully strange behavior from a collaborator.

Such is life..

[Quatar]

It is interessting to read that other teams also have some problems regarding the D2OL project. At my team (Dutch Power Cows) I hear the same questions.

I'm trying to get some of the major teams together, to make a statement to the "project leaders", lets say..... mayby together we stand stronger............

Cheers

Quatar
D2OL-Project Representative for the Dutch Power Cows.

[black_civic55]

yea i was about to start running the project again then i remember the head people over there arent very helpful in letting us know whats going on so ummm nope!

[ronbo54]

For those still interested in the project there has been a lot of activity there the last few days with several posts today from Charles in response to posts started by XS (see lounge area and add your concerns too). Hopefully Wolfgang will post on this soon as well.

D2OL Forums (http://www.d2ol.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi)

[tpdooley]

That sounded interesting... but I didn't see anything useful stated officially. I realize I've been a thorn in their side; but even my tiny contribution of 6 months cpu usage on but one of my systems - which got me well above the top 10% of the D2oL contributors - should have given me enough clout to get the information I've asked for since starting to run the project. It was Free-DC members who managed to get a response out of Hinz; although the responses were not complete, were not verifiable (at least by me), and even when patiently waiting for the promised results to be announced - it was up to us to once again request information.
Regardless of whether or not Hinz has lied to us - (If the truth was being told, then eventually an anthrax study will be published with some kind of reference to d2ol.) - Anthrax was not the only task that was 98% done in June or July. What are the progress reports on that project and how close are any of the other projects to being finished and ready to be passed on to wet labs?

And if it takes the threat of a whole team leaving d2ol to get Charles to announce that the programmer Hinz was talking about in 2004 - still doesn't exist - why continue?

At least with other projects, they're a lot more upbeat - if you ignore comments about hunting a poor Fozzie Bear.. *grin*