World Community Grid is pleased to announce that Phase 1 of the Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy (HCMD) project is coming to a close. This project, which launched on December 19, 2006, will have run for just over seven months by the time the final results for Phase 1 are returned. During this time 106,000 members will have donated more than 8,000 years of computer time on 154,000 different computers. This is a significant contribution to muscular dystrophy research.

The end of Phase 1 means that the researchers are doing significant work in preparation for Phase 2. To learn more about what is going on between phases, please read the posts by Dr. Alessandra Carbone and Dr. Sophie Sacquin-Mora, two of the researchers on the HCMD project, in World Community Grid's forums. In addition, the research team has prepared a progress site which may be reviewed here. Phase 2 is scheduled to start in early 2008. World Community Grid's team will continue to meet with the HCMD researchers on a regular basis and will provide updates on the forums as information becomes available.

We still need your help with other ongoing projects! World Community Grid continues to run the FightAIDS@Home, Genome Comparison, and Human Proteome Folding - Phase II projects. In a few months, we'll be launching new projects for cancer, dengue fever, and climate prediction. All of these important projects need your computer time.

IMPORTANT: If you have elected to participate only in the Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy project, you must take some action to prevent your World Community Grid agent from sitting idle on your PC until the next phase of the project launches. Please sign in to World Community Grid, and from the "My Grid" page, select the "My Projects" link from the menu on the left. From the "My Projects" page, select one or more of the other projects in which you choose to participate. If no action is taken within the next 2 weeks, we will set your default to "Participate in All Projects." You will then be automatically enrolled to participate in any new projects that will be launched later this year.

On behalf of the Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy research staff and World Community Grid's support team, we wish to express our thanks to you for contributing your PC power to this project. With your contribution, this project was completed in a fraction of the time it would otherwise have taken.