National project · Citizen science research
COVID-PHYM
Citizen distributed computing to find existing drugs that can block SARS-CoV-2 replication
About the project
COVID-PHYM was a citizen science project led by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Fundación Ibercivis. Its aim was to find, among drugs already used against other viral diseases, one that worked against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
Because these medicines had already been shown to be safe enough, they could be available to treat COVID-19 patients much sooner than a new compound, helping to bring the pandemic under control faster.
The Biophym Group at CSIC’s Institute for the Structure of Matter simulated how drugs used against Ebola, HIV, flu and hepatitis B interact with a protein that is key to the virus’s replication: RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Any molecule that managed to inhibit it would become a candidate for clinical trials.
Anyone with a computer and an internet connection could help from home by installing the BOINC software and joining Ibercivis BOINC. A standard computer would have taken years to do the calculations. Split into small packages and shared among thousands of volunteer computers, they reached a capacity similar to that of a supercomputer.
Project objectives
- Study whether medicines already used against Ebola, HIV, flu or hepatitis B could inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication.
- Help find solutions to the pandemic using computing power donated by the public.
- Offer volunteers scientific training on the pandemic and the project’s methods, and bring the scientific method closer to them.
The role of Ibercivis
Ibercivis made its distributed computing platform, Ibercivis BOINC, available to the project. The platform had more than 20,000 volunteers and had supported more than 15 research projects. The Foundation has its roots in the first distributed computing initiatives in Spain.
Canal BOINC and the Association for the Promotion of Scientific Research at Home (AFICCA) also collaborated. Their members volunteered in the platform’s first tests and helped fine-tune it.
Our activities
- Launch of the project on the Ibercivis BOINC platform (April 2020).
- An explainer document (in Spanish) on the virus, how it replicates and the project’s scientific approach.
- A guide so that anyone could install BOINC and join the project.
- Media coverage: interview with Javier Martínez de Salazar on Onda Cero’s ‘De Cero al Infinito’ programme (2 May 2020) and a television interview (May 2020).
Project details
Type of project
National
Duration
From April 2020
Consortium
Biophym Group, Institute for the Structure of Matter (CSIC), and Fundación Ibercivis
Area
Citizen science research
