-- What is Genome@Home?

Genome@Home is a scientific endeavor that harnesses the power of thousands of Internet connected computers to design new genes that can form the working proteins in the cell. This is where you can come in -- by running a free program that downloads and designs new proteins that will help our understanding of how natural genomes have evolved and how natural genes and proteins work. Who knows, maybe a protein sequence you design will lead to a cure for some illness.

Genome@Home uses a computer algorithm (SPA), based on the physical and biochemical rules by which genes and proteins behave, to design new proteins (and hence new genes) that have not been found in nature. By running the Genome@Home protein sequence design client, you can lend Genome@Home your computer while you are not using it. This client runs alongside of your other programs and does its calculations in the unused cpu time. Depending of your computers speed and usage a day or two's worth of running the Genome@Home client is enough to design a new protein sequence that the world has never seen before. All of the sequences get added to the Genome@Home database. Some important applications of the Genome@Home virtual genome proteins design database are:

• Engineering new proteins for medical therapy
• Designing new pharmaceuticals
• Assigning functions to the new genes being sequenced every day
• Understanding protein evolution

So, as you can see, this project could lead to some great breakthroughs for humanity. Come join The Knights Who Say NI on our quest for the betterment of mankind.

If you need more information on genomes and proteins, see this Scientific Background.

-- Who Are The Knights Who Say Ni?

We are an international group having fun working on various distributed projects. We have teams working on the Seti@Home, Genome@Home, and Folding@Home projects. Membership is open to anyone looking to have fun while working on one of these (or future) projects. As you can guess by the name, many of us are Monty Python fans. Our name derives from some characters in the movie, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". For a dose of silliness, check it out.