The Folding@home project has revealed that it now has more than 30,000 PlayStation 3 owners linked to the system in their quest to unravel the mysteries of folding DNA.

Gamers, who have signed up to take part in the project, allow their PS3s to perform calculations when idle in the fight against diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis and cancer.

The project started this month and is being conducted by Stanford University. It uses the power of the PS3's Cell chip to calculate data and nearly 40,000 PS3 CPUs are linked with the project, with over 30,000 being active in performing calculations in the last 50 days.

Before last Friday there were just 15,000 so the European launch seems to have done a lot to bolster numbers of owners taking part.

To sign up for Folding@home users must select the relevant icon in the Xross Media Bar.

>> Read - PS3 joins medical research program
>> Link - Official Site/Stanford Chemistry Department