The Web: Tracking 'virtual tumors'

By Gene J. Koprowski
Published 11/24/2004 11:56 AM
CHICAGO, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- A team of scientists is developing a "virtual tumor," a computer model viewed over the Internet by cancer researchers around the globe. It is used to observe the tumor as it develops from a single cell organism to a neoplasm, an uncontrolled growth of tissue.The cutting-edge project, in the planning stages right now, and others like it, promise to harness the power of the Internet in the battle against cancer -- and in other crucial scientific endeavors -- in the coming years, experts told UPI's The Web.Last week that proposal came a step closer to reality, as IBM Corp. announced it is working with Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a grid-computing project that will help cancer researchers share information. "The National Cancer Institute has identified this as a critical issue in advancing cancer research," said Glen Brandow, a spokesman for IBM. Grid computing is now the hottest area of networking. Grid computing, simply put, exploits the untapped processing capacity of thousands of computers simultaneously via the Internet. -- The Web is a weekly series by UPI covering the scientific, technical and cultural implications of the World Wide Web. E-mail: sciencemail [at] upi.comCopyright © 2001-2004 United Press International