LONDON: Your smartphone can now aid in the battle against cancer, thanks to a new app from Vodafone and the Garvan Institute.
Dubbed DreamLab, the app for Android phones taps into the unused processing power of smartphones to solve small cancer research problems and send the solutions to Garvan’s research teams.
Garvan says if the app is downloaded by just 100,000 users, researchers will be able to crunch data about 3,000 times faster than the current rate.
One of the research teams set to benefit from DreamLab is the breast cancer unit at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, led by Dr. Samantha Oakes.
‘The Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Australia is at the forefront of a revolution in cancer research,’ Dr. Oakes said.
‘With the help of game-changing innovations like DreamLab, I am hopeful that we will see cures of certain types of cancer in our lifetime.’
For those worried about their phone’s battery or data usage: the DreamLab app will only download research problems when the phone is plugged in and fully charged, and will only use Wifi data for most people. Vodafone customers can download DreamLab problems over their mobile data connection for free, and all app users can choose how much data to use each month.
