DreamLab reaches new milestone to guide cancer research

The path to curing cancer is a long one, but an award-winning smartphone application called DreamLab is  helping to speed up cancer research.

voda campaign dreamlab research

The path to curing cancer is a long one, but an award-winning smartphone application called DreamLab is  helping to speed up cancer research.

DreamLab was built in partnership with the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the Vodafone Foundation as part of a major cancer research project.

Basically, the app uses the idle processing power of smartphones at night time, while everyone is sleeping, to speed up the rate at which cancer research data is crunched.

Tens of thousands of Aussies, and people from around the world, have downloaded the app. They set their phones to work simply by pressing “play” on DreamLab when they plug in their devices to charge before going to bed.

At least 75 million calculations have been solved so far, which is on average 600 per person

The first big milestone

DreamLab reached a tremendous milestone in February this year, when it finished crunching the millions of calculations involved in “Project Decode” in half the time it would have otherwise taken.

Project Decode is the first of two cancer research projects being run through the app. Now that it’s complete, researchers at the Garvan Institute have begun analysing the calculations, specifically focusing on breast, ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancers. It will use calculations solved through DreamLab to investigate cancer based on a tumour’s DNA profile, rather than the tissue in which it’s located.

“There are many important research questions we’d like to ask, but some need so much computing power that it would cost too much, or take us years and years,” says Dr Warren Kaplan, chief bioinformatician at the Garvan Institute.

“DreamLab has given us free access to a dedicated virtual supercomputer to accelerate our cancer research, giving more hope to patients and their families.”

Researchers are now looking for common threads that run through the cancers, which could provide insight into rare and uncommon forms of cancer too.

Hope for cancer sufferers

Sarah McGoram, 40, has a rare form of intestinal cancer that has limited treatment options and no known cure, and she hopes the new research could lead to a lifeline.

“As a cancer patient for 21 years I have had plenty of moments waiting for research to find solutions to my rare cancer. It can feel like a long, slow wait,” says the Canberra mum.

“Participating in medical research helps me cope with the uncertainty of my disease and prognosis. As a patient, I participate in clinical trials whenever I can, but they are hard to come by. Powering the DreamLab app each night gives me a sense of contributing to the research, albeit in the smallest possible way.”

She says if she can help the researchers get their data even one day sooner, it’s worth it. Her 11-year-old son George, as well as her father and sister, also crunch data every night.

Ms McGoram believes everyone should do their part. “It takes a community effort to solve this disease and find the cure, and we’re absolutely in a hurry to find it!”

The Garvan Institute plans to report on its findings in June as part of its bid to boost global cancer research.

Download DreamLab on iOS from the App Store or on an Android from Google Play, and you too can help solve cancer while you sleep.

Originally published as DreamLab reaches new milestone to guide cancer research