http://folding.stanford.edu/science.html
The above link describes what doctors are looking for and the science of protein folding.
There are certain types of scientific problems that require huge numbers of processors to computer. Folding@Home is a project that works to advance medicine by borrowing unused time on normal computers to fold proteins.
Diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, cystic fibrosis, BSE (Mad Cow disease), an inherited form of emphysema, and even many cancers are believed to result from protein misfolding.
Many folks from FR have banded together to donate our computers to advancing science. Our team is advancing through the rankings and now is about #600 of 43,000 teams.
Some people like pretty goldfish for a screen saver or a Microsoft logo prancing across the screen. We prefer pictures of proteins dancing during down time.