Saturday I got an email from my internet security provider (Aavast) asking if I would help find a cure for COVID-19.

I didn't know how to respond.

After all, I did not study medicine at university.

So what did they want me to do?

They asked if I would allow a university to run some calculations on my computer while I slept.

I'm not using my computer from 10 pm to 6 am.

It seems that the  Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, USA is part of a larger project called folding@home that needs to do a lot of calculations.

Here is what I learnt from their website:

Folding@home Consortium scientists have been working hard over the past three months to support experimental collaborators working to develop new therapies for COVID-19. One of these experimental collaborations is with the COVID Moonshot, an ambitious open science collaboration working to develop low-cost, patent-free small molecule therapeutics that target the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease. This open science collaboration brings together scientists from Oxford, Cambridge, Washington Univeristy, and other research facilities.

They are looking for a million small computers to help with their calculations.

I thought we could work together as a team. 

I installed the software yesterday and started computing a solution. I also created  a team called "Homebush West".  We are team 266045.

If we can use your computer during your off hours, visit https://foldingathome.org/

Let me know if you have any questions.

I believe that by working together we can find  a cure for COVID-19 quicker.