The cure for CANCER could be in YOUR pocket

The free smartphone app could bring us closer to a cure for cancer

NEW app promises to transform your humble smartphone into a powerful cancer research machine.

 

Smartphones are incredibly powerful computers.

For example, the iPhone 6S is powered by a 64-bit chip which Apple claims "delivers performance once found only in desktop computers.

But during the night, while you're fast asleep and your smartphone is quietly charging on the bedside table – that staggering computing power is going to waste.

A new app – dubbed DreamLab – wants to change all that.

 



Smartphone owners can either contribute to breast, ovarian, pancreatic and prostate cancer



 



The DreamLabs Android app is available in the UK Google Play Store



The new smartphone app harnesses the processing power of smartphones to carry out important medical research, including potentially life-saving cancer research.

By linking hundreds of smartphones via the app, it creates a powerful network capable of crunching huge amounts of data.

The DreamLab Android app has been built by Vodafone and is currently being trialled in Australia.

 

As the name suggests, DreamLab allows smartphone owners to "donate" their mobile's processing power while their owners are asleep.

When your smartphone is plugged in, fully charged and running the app – the Australian Garvan Institute of Medical Research sends a tiny genetic sequencing task to crunch.

When the sequence is solved, the data is sent back to the Garvan Institute to be used as part of their ongoing research.

Users can choose which project they want their smartphone to contribute to, including breast cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer and prostate cancer.

 

Just 1,000 smartphones running the app could speed up cancer research 30 times

According to Vodafone, only 1,000 smartphones running the DreamLab app can speed up research by 30 times.

Unfortunately the service can use a hefty chunk of your data allowance.

However DreamLab does allow users to pick limits of either 250MB, 500MB and 1GB to send – with data from the app being offered free for Vodafone Australia customers, or available to send solely over a home wifi network.

Vodafone Australia is currently working on an iOS version of the app.

While it is an Australian initiative for the time being, the DreamLab Android app is available in the UK Google Play Store.

"Medical research is the key to solving cancer, but one thing slowing progress is the limited access researchers have to supercomputers to crunch their complex data.

"That’s where DreamLab comes in," the Garvan Institute said.