Open science is a research accelerator.

When we are faced with a challenging scientific problem we cannot solve, what do we do? Many of us would go to see our colleagues and ask for their advice. Our professional network is valuable. It is also limited. Perhaps there are people who are well-placed to help us, in another university or company, in a different country, but we unfortunately do not know them. Surely science would proceed faster if we could reach those people? Or, better, if they could find us? This Commentary describes a case study — a chemical project where open-source methodologies were employed to accelerate the process of discovery. The acceleration occurred because the project was open: relevant experts could identify themselves. Open source has been responsible for many important software products used worldwide (including, for example, the Linux operating system, the Firefox web browser) and internet resources such as Wikipedia. The process of creating open-source products involves the iterative cycle of (1) a problem or need being identified, (2) a preliminary solution being posted to this problem, (3) an open appeal to the wider community being made, (4) inputs received from an unrestricted community and (5) the cycle beginning over again. Such a cycle can operate quickly because of the advent of online tools that strengthen the relevant networks. In software development, traditional versus open-source methods of working are described by the analogy of the ‘cathedral and the bazaar’1. Many academic and industrial groups operate along a cathedral model in that significant objects are built by a closed team of skilled artisans — the training of whom has consumed considerable resources. Cathedral projects operate in a hierarchical scheme — one person is in charge of a closed group. In a bazaar-type project, there is a low barrier to entry, and the operation is seemingly chaotic or selforganizing. Leadership is fluid, if it exists at all. The system is effective at what it does, yet requires little investment to start up and relies on the traffic of inherently interested strangers. We decided to apply this latter approach to a research problem — applying the principles of open-source software development to experimental science. The drug praziquantel (PZQ) is used in the treatment of a serious parasitic infection, schistosomiasis (also known as bilharziasis) that affects the lives of hundreds of millions of people worldwide; the disease has been referred to as a ‘silent pandemic’2. Praziquantel is highly effective, and is manufactured and distributed on a huge scale3 — it is distributed for preventive chemotherapy through mass drug administration to school children or entire communities, for example by the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative4. As it is off-patent, this demand has driven down the price of the active pharmaceutical ingredient to approximately 10 US cents per gram and that of a 600 mg tablet to 8–14 US cents. The compound is made as a racemate, even though the inactive enantiomer has side effects and is responsible for a bitter taste5. A pill consisting of just the active enantiomer would not be bitter (hence more likely to be taken, especially by children), would be smaller (easier to ship and swallow) and generate fewer side effects. The World Health Organization, in its strategic plan for 2008– 2013, listed the generation of PZQ as a single enantiomer as a priority6. How is it possible to produce only the active enantiomer while keeping the price very low? This is a unique kind of problem. Racemates are always cheaper to make than enantiopure materials, unless the relevant drug is derivable from a natural source, which PZQ is not. This is a problem that both academia and industry are ill-equipped to solve. Academic research is not concerned with gradually reducing costs of anything, nor in incrementally improving a synthesis. Such aims are not generally suitable as the subject of a graduate thesis. Similarly, the pharmaceutical industry has little motive to assign research and development resources to a project that has a narrow profit margin.