Here are all the Foldit newsletters that have been sent out, with the most recent one at the bottom.
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Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.
This week we saw the introduction of the Reaction Design tool. The devs are working hard on polishing it up and making it more usable! As always, thanks for your feedback and bug reports. You can submit more feedback here.
In this puzzle, I accidentally evo'ed on a broken developer build and got the top score. Whoops, sorry about that!
Here are some of the solutions at the top of the leaderboards. [A note from our scientists: the top of the leaderboards doesn't always mean the most scientifically useful. These highlights are not scientific feedback and are not officially endorsed as scientifically valid designs by the Foldit team.]
Join the mailing list to see what others are folding!
This week's recipe is an oldie but a goodie from drjr. The recipe is called Reset, and it does what it says on the tin: reset to the best score, unfreeze the protein, remove all your bands, and set the CI to 1. A simple recipe, but a handy quality of life tool for when you just need to backtrack a little.
Quick shoutout to argyrw for always being a friendly voice in chat! Say hi to her in global or veteran chat.
Beginner: Are you still using Pull to draft your protein in the early game? Try making cutpoints and moving pieces around with the Move tool, it's so much easier! Don't forget to disable cutpoint bands in the Behavior tab, or they'll all come together again when you wiggle.
Intermediate: It can be really tempting mid-game to just switch to running recipes. But give some time to carefully inspect every acceptor and donor (the red and blue dots) to see what hydrogen bonds you can form, and manually mutate as needed. Not only will this lower your BUNS, but it'll help form a strong hbond network. The scientists love this, and your rank will too!
Expert: If you haven't already, read bkoep's blog on binder design metrics. DDG, SASA, and SC are going to become really important soon since we're looking to add objectives for them. So understanding and practicing these principles now can help you get a headstart on the competition! Use the protein design sandbox to try out some ideas.
Have a tip to share or a recipe to recommend? Reply with your suggestions or make a wiki page for your ideas! Reaction Design doesn't have a page yet, so if you understand this tool, help out your community by writing about it! (Since writing this post, LociOiling has graciously created the page for Reaction Design puzzles.)
Until next time, happy folding!
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Personally, I went with a 4-helix design for this puzzle, and it seems like that's what a lot of the highest scoring solutions did. But there were also a couple of 3-helix designs, and even some sheets!
The highest scoring solutions for this puzzle kept two medium-sized sheets lined up and folded the rest into short helices around a core.
Compare this to some of the intermediate solutions. Although these folds are okay, they had some minor problems: some loose helices and poor scoring ends.
What was the trickiest part for you about this puzzle? Let's talk about it in Discord!
This week's recipe has been described by Phyx as "The Best Recipe of 2014": Wisky's Repeating Rebuild All!
Let this late-game recipe run for 3-4 hours and it will do some rebuilding magic on your pose.
I want to honor LociOiling! for constantly being the #1 contributor to our wiki!. This week he created the pages for Reaction Design Puzzles and Camera Controls! If you've ever read a wiki page that was made in the last few years, chances are Loci wrote it. Give him your thanks in chat next time you use the wiki!
This week's most beautiful fold comes from Formula350 for his Borromean rings! This would never fold up in real life, but wow, is it pretty!
Beginner: Don't be afraid to reassign your secondary structures to different sheets and helices! While this might seem like you're "changing the puzzle," you're really just making a suggestion for what shape the protein should take, and this suggestion can help your other tools better serve you. Try a bunch of different secondary structure assignments and use Ideal SS on them afterward, then see how this new arrangement might be easier or harder to fold. Play around with it, Foldit is about experimenting!
Intermediate: If you haven't learned to use Backbone Pins yet, I highly recommend it. This tool, hidden away in the view options, gives you more control over wiggling than CI alone. A locked pin is similar to a ZLB, it will keep your wiggle locked to that spot, while moving everything else more.
Expert: Although it might seem like more hbonds means better binding, hbonds at the interface don't actually add to the strength of the bind, since they aren't much stronger than these atoms simply binding to water. What use are interface hbonds then? Their purpose is eliminating BUNS. The real strength of your binding comes from hydrophobic interactions, shown in the Hiding and Packing subscores, and your hbond network gives the bind its specificity.
Want to recommend a recipe of the week or have your solution featured in the next newsletter? Send us your cookbooks and screenshots, we'd love to see what you're up to!
Until next time, happy folding!
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.
3 Solutions from This Week's Puzzle</h3> (Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.) Puzzle 1861: Symmetric Trimer Design: Buried Unsats Triple helix is here to stay, look how clean and neat these bundles are! Great job silent gene and Spvincent
This solution took a less common approach to the triple helix meta. I'll let you decide for yourself whether you think it scored well or not. What do you think of it? Let us know in the Discord!
Puzzle 1862: Coronavirus Round 13
An extra special congratulations goes to clark92 for being top rank for this puzzle! This up-and-coming folder only started folding at the end of February, and already they've taken the leaderboards by storm!
These solutions come from some of our beginner folders! Can you tell what they could do better?
As a reminder, here are some helpful tips from bkoep on designing a good binder!
Want to get your top solution featured in the weekly newsletter? Click the "Share with Scientists" button in the "Open/Share Solution" menu and your solution might get featured! Don't forget to fill out our username sharing form if you'd like your username to be shown with your solutions!
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update. Congratulations to Go Science! for being the top of all three puzzles this week! Go Science has been an open and active group since 2010. One of the best ways to learn and improve in Foldit is to join a group.
If Go Science isn't your style, try the hopeful and determined Anthropic Dreams, the fun and light Gargleblasters, or the dedicated Contenders
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Puzzle 1863: Refinement R1043
I've heard this puzzle was crashing pretty frequently. Thanks for your patience everyone, the devs are hard at work trying to fix these issues!
Puzzle 1864: Symmetric Trimer Design: Limited Interface
To master this puzzle, you needed to limit how big your binding interface was. Notice how the top scores rotated their helical bundles to limit their attachments!
Puzzle 1865: Coronavirus Anti-inflammatory Design 8
Bkoep said there were 15 unsolvable BUNS, but some of the top solutions got them down to 11! Great job on satisfying those BUNS everyone, keep it up!
Want to know more about why we're designing binders from scratch? Check out this forum thread for details on why we're not just using the ACE2 receptor design.
This week's recipe is new but with great potential:
mwm64's UnBun is designed to help you reduce BUNS. This recipe only works on puzzles with the BUNS objective, and I haven't personally tried it out much, but I've heard a few folks are trying it. Plus, if you're looking to get involved with recipe evolving, this simple recipe could be a good way to get some practice with Lua. Given how important the BUNS objective is, we're going to need more recipes like this! So thanks mwm64 for making the first de-BUN-ifier!
A quick shout-out this week to malphis, a friendly newcomer who joined a couple of months ago and has been really active in chat. Malphis has also been super helpful submitting bug reports to help the devs track down issues. Thanks!
Looking for some more protein beauty? Check out this beautiful proteins blog! It's got a ton of real proteins that are naturally amazingly beautiful.
Beginner: Before trying to wiggle your designed protein into the perfect shape, give it a mutate first! This will help the protein pack together better and give you a cleaner structure to work with. You can also mutate by hand: for example, although all of your amino acids start as isoleucine, it's actually better to set your loops to asparagine to start with.
Intermediate: Have you learned how to use the Rama map yet? We're working on a few new guides that should help make it easier to learn, but in the meantime Susume has two guides on how to use the Rama map to fix un-ideal loops and even copy a loop
Expert: Are you planning your design before you make it? Before you start drafting, spend a few minutes thinking about what your design will look like. How long will each helix and sheet be? Will you try to make pi stacks? What part of the protein will bind at the interface, and how will that give it shape complementarity? Once you're ready, use Loci's AA Edit and SS Edit to enter your design and give it a quick early/midgame rinse. Then hand it off to a novice member of your group to evolve and try another design!
Have a tip to share with the community? Reply with your wisdom, or post on our Forums!
Until next time, happy folding!
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Like last week, the top results here used a lot of helical bundles and rotated them to limit the size of the interface.
Lately, most of the top solutions have been three-helix bundles. This week that's true too, but here are a few good designs that didn't do that! In these images, I pulled the binders out of the binding site so you can get a good look at their shapes. (Some images may be from previous rounds.)
This week's recipe is by Design Models Bruno Kestemont.
This recipe is really great for getting started with an early draft of your design, and is especially useful for all the beginner designers out there! Just click a design, like HHH for triple helix or SSSSHH (4-sheet 2-helix), and it'll automatically assign secondary structures for you based on Bruno's recommended SS lengths. Don't forget to use Ideal SS afterward to see your secondary structures come together!
A quick shout-out this week to Dudit for being a pal in global chat and a hard worker on the Coronavirus challenges! Dudit has been reaching the top 10 on Coronavirus puzzles pretty consistently. Say hi to them next time you're in chat!
This past week, donuts554 made the first-ever DDG Calculator recipe. For next week, I'm challenging all folders to expand on this idea! Here's Susume's recommended way to determine DDG, which was approved by our scientists as a valid approach:
Measure score
Freeze everything
Use bands to pull the binder far away from the target
Unfreeze
Shake
Wiggle sidechains
Report the difference between this score and the old one
(8. Return the protein to its original position!)
Feel free to try your own method, or use Susume's. The best DDG Calculator will be announced as next week's Recipe of the Week!
The devs are hard at work making a DDG objective, but until then, a recipe is a great way to make sure your fold is scientifically great.
Beginner: Use building blocks from the Blueprint panel to make sure your loops are ideal! Just don't forget to remove these blocks during the late game to squeeze out extra points at the end.
Intermediate: Did you know you can fix un-ideal loops with Remix too? LociOiling made a video about it here!
Expert: How well do you know your Koga & Koga design rules? Be sure to check out their supplements for SS design principles to help make sure your designs are scientifically valid!
Good luck on this week's DDG challenge! Don't forget to share your recipes on our Discord!
Until next time, happy folding!
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Now, you may be thinking to yourself, "This again? Why are we even doing this?" But the answer
is actually super neat! Designing proteins that can bind together in assemblies is the first step of research toward lab-made synthesis of protein-based materials. You're probably familiar with some of these materials: silk, wool, cotton, and leather.
What if humans could design their own materials, to be stronger, more durable, or softer? This is the research you're supporting by designing really cool trimers. So keep it up folders! You're doing awesome, awesome work. (Want to learn more about protein-based materials? For beginners, check out this article.
For experts, try this one.
Can't get enough designs? Each week, players like LociOiling upload their own screenshots to the wiki!
Want to see more designs? Check out the wiki!
This week's recipe is Freeze All Sheets by srssmith92. A quick, simple utility useful for the early game!
Our DDG Challenge is still running! Check out last week's newsletter for more info! However, this challenge might end early. Our scientists are almost ready to debut new Objectives that measure DDG for you!
A quick shout-out this week to Todd6485577. Todd only started in April, but they've been a happy addition to our Foldit family and a friendly voice in chat. Thanks for folding, Todd!
"Pretty Trimer" comes from Jpilkington, one of the many amazing Gargleblasters! As I write this, the Gargleblasters have the top spots on the leaderboards for this week. Not only have they mastered the puzzles, but they also have the creativity to design wonderful art!
Beginner:
If you haven't already, join a group and start evolving other players' solutions! It's the best way to train your eye for what a good protein looks like!
Intermediate:
Natural sheets don't always line up perfectly. In fact, a neighboring sheet is usually a little bit shorter or longer!
Expert:
How do you decide what amino acids should go in your loops? This paper by Lin et al. found some correlations between amino acids and loop types. Check it out!
Do you have the creativity to make art from science? Post your pretty proteins on our Discord!
Until next time, happy folding!
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update. The new binder metrics are finally here! This devprev* puzzle tests out DDG, SASA, and Shape Complementarity. Not sure what binder metrics are? Check bkoep's blog post here.
*Devprev is Foldit's beta testing version. May contain bugs. Want to try it anyway? Find the options.txt file in your Foldit folder and change "update_group" from "main" to "devprev" – you can always change it back when you want to go to a stable build again!
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Most of these solutions were triple helices, but take a look at the one that isn't: it's got some very neat pi interactions, also known as pi stacking.
If you guessed triple helices would be the top solutions of this week's coronavirus puzzles, you'd be right! Seriously, if you're new and just want to get something to work, give triple helix a shot.
This week's recipe is Quickfix, a popular mid game refinement tool by spvincent and Bruno Kestemont. Have an issue, need a quick fix? Try Quickfix!
A huge hoorah to Boots McGraw for being a star returning to the Foldit community. Back in the day, Boots was such a great player that he even won a Foldit trophy for having the first-ever player design tested in the lab! Now, after six years of what I can only imagine was a pursuit to become the best in something else, Boots has returned with vigor and vim, reaching the global top 10 in only four months of getting back into his folding groove. I'm sure his team, the Contenders, are very glad to see him back. Welcome back Boots (and his faithful equine companion, Trigger!), we hope to have you here for many more years to come.
Beginner: Never wiggle at full Clashing Importance if there are still clashes around, otherwise everything will fly apart!
Intermediate: Having trouble building a core? Try wiggling at low CI (around 0.3-0.4), then mutate at full CI, followed by a wiggle. The low CI wiggle brings everything together, then the high CI mutate lets Foldit pick smaller sidechains for the core to bring the backbones closer together. (If you'd rather have larger sidechains, mutate at a lower CI.) Thanks to Susume and tokens for this tip!
Expert: Given a particular sheet length, the helix length to cover it in a sheet-helix-sheet motif doesn't vary much. The chirality stays the same, too. No need to play with these designs, sheet-helix-sheet motifs are pretty consistent!
If you have the time, putting a video of Foldit on YouTube is a really, really great way to help share tips with the community and get new players interested in the game. There's some resources for making videos and livestreaming Foldit on this wiki page.
Until next time, happy folding!
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Take a look at all the different ways folks were making h-bond networks this time!
These puzzles will soon be shaken up as the new binder metrics come out! Check out LociOiling's new wiki pages on DDG and SASA to get a head start on how to master these metrics!
This week's recipe is just for fun: Zo3xia has put the ancient game of Go inside Foldit! Need a quick mini-game? Play the AI in a 2x2 version of this classic Chinese strategy game. Download the recipe here!
A big thank you to spvincent this week for making a new wiki page on how to make h-bond networks! Want to play with spvincent's expert HBNets? Join the Contenders and evolve their solutions!
Beginner: Try setting the Clashing Importance to 0 when pulling stuff around. Things will fly apart a lot less!
Intermediate: Here are some advanced camera controls that often go unnoticed: you can fade the lighting ("fog") on the protein by holding Ctrl + Alt/Option + left click and dragging. Or you can clip the background entirely by holding Ctrl + Shift + left click and dragging. You can clip the foreground by holding Ctrl + Alt/Option + left click and dragging. In combination with using Q to focus on a residue, these controls let you see just the part of your protein that you're trying to focus on.
Expert: Check out this article on small beta barrels!
Want to improve your folding? Click the camera button in the chat box to post a screenshot of your design in global chat and ask for feedback!
Until next time, happy folding!
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update. Congratulations to the Gargleblasters for getting the top rank in this week's puzzles! Great job Jpilkington and Skippysk8s for taking the #1 spots! If you'd like to join Gargleblasters, send a private message to Skippysk8s.
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
We saw some really cool designs this round! I have no idea how likely these folds are to fold up well, but gosh are they pretty!
This round of the Coronavirus puzzles introduced the new binder metrics! They're slow to run, so it's best to only run them after major changes. This week I'm showing results in AAColor so you can get a better sense of what amino acids are being used in these helices!
Looking for something to help you make better H-bond networks? Try HNetwork Probe by spvincent!
This week's player of the week is donuts554! Not only is donuts always a friendly voice in chat, they made a detailed strategy guide on the wiki describing how they approach Foldit. Thanks for being a part of the community, donuts :)
Here are some mesmerizing folds by Formula350. Very cool!
Beginner: Having trouble getting started on design puzzles? Those extended chains can be intimidating when your protein is just one straight line. Bruno's Design Models recipe is a great way to start drafting your fold early on! Run this recipe, then use Ideal SS on each structure and you'll be halfway to having something foldable!
Intermediate/Expert: This week the advice for intermediate and expert players is the same because of how important it is. Take notes! For each puzzle you play, jot down some quick notes on how you tackled it. How did you decide what to do in the early game? What recipes did you run? What was challenging? Journaling is an awesome, invaluable strategy for getting better because it lets you reflect on what you've already done and what you can try next time. Bonus points if you share your notes with the rest of the community! Make a forum post or a wiki page, or just post on the Discord in the #tips-and-tricks channel. Let us know what you discover or what patterns you observe. We don't have time to make all the mistakes ourselves, so tell us what you struggled with and how you got through it so that we can learn too!
Have a good or interesting solution to share? Don't forget to click the Upload For Scientists button in the Open/Share Solutions menu!
Until next time, happy folding!