With DreamLab application you can contribute to cancer research by charging your phone while you sleep and allowing the scientists of the Institute of Molecular Oncology (IFOM) to do computational genomics calculations to fight breast cancer.
DREAMLAB: THE APP THAT HELPS CANCER RESEARCH
DreamLab is an application designed and created by the Vodafone Italia Foundation and AIRC that boosts the calculations of researchers at the Institute of Molecular Oncology (IFOM) to fight breast cancer. Each one of us can help by simply using our smartphones, thus taking part in what is called “participatory science”. Are you considering the idea? All right, let’s see what to do:
- DOWNLOAD DREAMLAB: the first step is to download the application on your smartphone. This is compatible with both iOS and Android devices.
- CHARGING THE SMARTPHONE AT NIGHT: the second step is to charge the smartphone overnight and leave it on and connected to a Wi-Fi network. If Vodafone is your carrier, you will have no additional data consumption; others carriers can choose to donate a specific amount of mobile or Wi-Fi data to the research.
- LET THE SMARTPHONE WORK: when you wake up the next morning, you will realize that apparently nothing has changed. And in fact nothing has changed indeed, but you will have participated in cancer research.
What exactly is DreamLab and how does it work?
How is this possible? Sounds complicated but in reality it is very easy. We utilize our phone constantly during the day, both for work and for fun. Watching Netflix, checking and downloading emails, texting and sending photos, sound clips, uploading content to Instagram etc… All these actions are conducted through the computing power of smartphones. Researchers thought of recovering and downloading these small data packages generated by the activities mentioned above and send them to the 3D Genome project. The computational calculation that IFOM researchers are working on is a very long and elaborate process, active 24 hours a day and which could take almost a year and a half to be complete. By relying on smartphones and their owners, activating it only at night, will allow to significantly reduce the calculation times.
Cancer is a disease of the genome (genetic information contained in our DNA) and the calculations generated by DreamLab will grant advanced analyses on 3D architecture data of chromatin in order to highlight the target genes that are created in normal cells. The researchers also say that the project can also be used in the future to fight other types of cancer.
It’s really interesting to see how our smartphones can make a difference. Take part in citizen science, here’s where to download it:
Did you like this article? Have you already tried DreamLab? Leave a comment to share your experience with us.