We need to find a cure, please help.

gtghmgtghm New
edited February 2004 in Folding@Home
I would like to take just a minute to reiterate the importance of folding.
This past Friday one of the most important persons in my life passed away.
My grandmother was 86 and she had Alzheimer's.
She was full of life and life's experiences. Unfortunately the Alzheimer's kept wonderful memories of her past locked deep in her mind so that they could not be accessed. This woman was the strongest person I have ever known. Family legends abound with stories of unbelievable achievements, especially for a woman from her time. She was instrumental in helping to raise 4 rowdy adolescent boys into adult hood. Her lessons were simple, Be honest and forthright, do the right thing, and work hard. She led by example, I never new her to do anything that was not right.
In the end it was a variety of things that took her from this world but it was the Alzheimer's that was the cruelest of all. I know that she would sit for days trying to remember something that she knew she should of known. I have seen her work her self up into an almost agitated state because she could not remember. To be robbed of your memories in the later years is quite devastating. For me the loss of her memory was quite troublesome. I think that one of the greatest gifts that the older generation can pass on to the younger is the past. At 86 my grandmother had seen first hand the fall of the stock market and the great depression. She saw 2 world wars and many other conflicts. She saw at least 16 different presidents take office and one that was killed. In her life time she saw the beginning and the end of industrialization. While not considered one for high-tech gadgets she saw the technology boom. She used to tell us about the world before TV. At that time cars were only bought by the rich. Train Travel was the fastest way for most folks unless you were fortunate to be able to afford a plane ticket. Thankfully she was able to speak of these things before the disease took hold. My only regret is that the stories were not documented earlier.
I remember her telling of helping in the soup lines during the depression and collecting Rubber and metal for the war. There will however be so much information that will be lost forever. My mother was adopted by my grandmother at the age of 3. I know that my mom's parents were very close friends of my grandparents and thus the reason they adopted her.
But the stories and information that she felt was private and only for divulging at the proper time never got passed on. Please forgive my rambling sometimes it astounds and overwhelms me at the loss that has occurred.
Pity though, that as it was 01/23/04 that her earthly body was taken from this world, yet it was the terrible disease of Alzheimer's that really took her away from us since 1995. It is this post that I hope continues to ignite the fires of desire to find a cure for one of the most devastating diseases that one can have.
My hope is that folding is REAL and not just some fly by night project looking for ET on some far off planet.
I wish we could get more updates as to the status of the project and if it is making any progress towards a cure, but, I will continue to fold as long as it is a legitimate search for a cure.
I exhort any of those that are not folding that might read this post, go to the folding site. Read about it, please participate. They are asking for our help, I think that it is our obligation if we can, to try and help, and by donating your unused CPU cycles, that are going
to go waste anyway, you can be part of helping to find a possible cure for one of the most cruelest diseases known to man.

Fight the good fight, Fold on!

L. Drom, 10-21-18 to 01-23-04 RIP

"g"

Comments

  • edited January 2004
    My condolences for your loss. I too hope that it is real and not something hopeless that we are doing under the guise of being good and beneficial. Have you posted the same thing in the official folding forum? I'd also like to see more updates on the project. It would give folders like us a real idea of how we're benefitting instead of some far off conjured up notion of what we think we're doing. The loss of life is sad no matter how it happens. If you need anything to help you through your tough time, let me know.

    KingFish
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    It is real enough that other research institutions are sponsoring folding projects through Stanford, and that sponsorship helps pay for the core network portion at stanford which is used specifically for folding(I am including server hardware improvements when I say this).

    What is likely to happen is that treatments will be the results of research teams, not just from one institution, but it is real research. Some of it will be elimination of dead ends, other areas will point to new details to explore to narrow down what works. The more who fold, the faster it happens that a set of results and further experiments to drill into good results will let us see real treatments that work. How do you report on research that is and many times HAS to be continuing and reactively changing??? Hard, very hard. But some of the experiments are working on the effects of temp and chemicals on how proteins misfold or fold right. We are not TOTALLY at early theory stage, but cancer and related things like alzheimers (partly a protien thing) can morph some over time also. Do not expect instant results, nor results a non-chemist or MD could easily grasp, but this is not pie in the sky either-- essentially, we and the other folding teams have gened many millions of points and millions of WUs, and each WU is an experiment in progress-- those that continue are ones that are built on non-deadend results, but many possibilities have to be eliminated also. Do not expect instant tangible total cure results that work across the whole human race, just gradually better treatments, then as actual use results come in, some breakthroughs.

    John.
  • HawkHawk Fla Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    Sorry to hear the news of your grandmother passing gt. Prayers and love to you and your family friend. Can't wait to get more pc's folding to get rid of that nasty disease.
  • fudgamfudgam Upstate New York
    edited January 2004
    Gtghm, I am sorry to hear of your loss.

    I know you people are gonna yell at me for posting this... but.... http://www.cqs.com/opmadcow.htm . It was the first hit on google. Please do other searches on organophosphate and heavy metal poisoning and degenerative diseases. I really hope that a cure is found by folding or anything else. That link is just to offer another piece to this puzzle. Again, I am sorry to hear of your loss.
  • edited January 2004
    "G", I also know what the ravages of Alzheimer's does. I also watched my Grandmother progress in Alzheimer's until she didn't even recognize her own sons and daughter, much less us grandchildren. My most sincere condolences on your loss and pray that the Lord helps to ease your family's pain and sorrow at her passing.

    Jim
  • ClutchClutch North Carolina New
    edited January 2004
    Man, I'm really sorry for your loss. My thoughts will be with you and your family. It is always hard loosing a loved one, I know. I wish I knew what else to say, but I'm not that good with words. Fold on team, we will get our cure.
  • NoFutureNoFuture In a 3D world...
    edited January 2004
    My grandmother is also slowly drowning in that nasty disease...
    My condolences.

    As I always say: Folding can save your @$$... so FOLD ON!!!
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited January 2004
    Sorry to hear the bad news. Let's hope the day comes soon when we look back on this sort of tragedy the same way we now view smallpox and polio - something wiped out by advances in medicine.

    Keep Folding! :thumbup :fold:
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    Sorry to hear about your grandmother gtghm ...I know what it's like losing loved ones to lingering diseases that detereorate ones quality of life til the end. Hope there's something good to come from us folding. :fold:
  • edited February 2004
    I came across this link while perusing the official forums for folding at home. I found it quite interesting and didn't know if you've come across it yourself:
    http://www.bioexchange.com/news/news_page.cfm?id=19158
    It looks like we're making great gains in this area of proteins.

    KingFish
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    Thanks for the good news link. Finding counteracting proteins and ways to prevent formation of badly acting ones or destruction of them without harming body is what folding is all about.

    In essence, folding sims experiments that would take a real long time to do in reality with physical labs and petrie dishes and animal studies, and lets research folks use limited time to study what looks most promising. We can eliminate lots of dead ends and sometimes find non-dead-end things to explore more in the lab by folks good at that.

    That dead end thing is why some WUs cannot complete, they are not necessarily bad code, they can serve to show that an experiment condition set would be a dead end if many boxes reject them or give results that show no good results. Then folding can change sim to show different condition in one variable, and narrow down what might work faster if that change results in at least completing WUs.

    John D.
  • DragstkDragstk Syracuse, N.Y.
    edited February 2004
    gtghm;
    I am sorry for your pain, at the passing of your Grandmother. I hope you can take some comfort in knowing that your Grandmother no longer suffers, in any way.
    And you should express your feelings. While it's fun to work on computers, and enjoy the chase of finishing WU's, it's your thoughts that make us know the real reason we Fold.
    God bless you and your family
    Dragstk
  • edited February 2004
    Here's another post in those forums regarding one of the proteins that F@H is investigating.
    http://forum.folding-community.org/viewtopic.php?t=6263
    We have to be getting really close. I hope alzheimer's is the first disease that the F@H project help to treat or cure. There seems to be a lot of research coming out lately that has good implications for it.

    KingFish
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