Foldit Newsletters

[agcohn821]

Newsletter September 4: School's In Session!

Hey folders!

Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update. This week the scientists shared LCB1 with us: a protein designed by the IPD that binds to the coronavirus spike protein to block viral infection. Bkoep talked about it more in this month's lab report. Check it out and learn how the scientists are tackling the same folding problem as you!

Solutions from This Week's Puzzles

(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)

Puzzle 1882: Symmetric Trimer Design: H-Bond Networks

Puzzle 1883: Coronavirus Anti-inflammatory Design: Round 11

Recipe of the Week

This week's recipe is an update on a classic: Blue Fuse 2020. Blue Fuse is one of the best recipes of all time, and LociOiling has updated it for modern use. Blue Fuse automates the process of shaking and wiggling while slowly increasing the clashing importance: a great tool for stabilizing your fold!

Player of the Week

Big thanks to jeff101 this week for always being helpful to new players in global chat, especially now as Education mode is helping students this semester! And thanks to all of our veteran folders who help newcomers learn to fold. You rock!

Today’s Master Folding Tips

Beginner: Having trouble getting the protein where you need it to go? Try turning the clashing importance to 0 to pull things easier without unintended consequences. Or use the Cut and Move technique!

Intermediate: Your eyes play tricks on you! Don't forget to keep moving your camera around to see the 3D shape of your fold. Try going into Sphere view and Stick view to get different perspectives on the shape of your protein as well!

Expert: Did you know that the orientation of donors and acceptors is important for forming good hydrogen bonds? Check out the cheat sheet below, courtesy of uihcv!

Want to learn more about the science of Foldit? Check out Foldit Education mode!

Until next time, happy folding!

[agcohn821]

Newsletter September 11: Y'all Are Maaad Good at This Game

Hey folders!

Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update. And, just because I don't say this enough, thanks for playing everybody. You impress me every week with your creativity, persistence, and commitment to contributing to science, and I think I speak for all of the scientists when I say we really, really appreciate your efforts.

Solutions from This Week's Puzzles

(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)

Puzzle 1884: Refinement Target R1056

Here's a full look at one of the best solutions for this refinement puzzle.

Puzzle 1885: Symmetric Trimer Design: H-Bond Networks

Puzzle 1886: Coronavirus Binder Design 17

Recipe of the Week

This week's recipe is Ma-a-a-ad good! Check out Maaa by Bruno Kestemont to "Mutate Authorized Amino Acids." Unlike the standard Mutate tool, which tries every amino acid possibility, with Bruno's Maaa, you can deny and allow specific amino acid mutations. This is great for preserving your orange hydrophobics or mutating explicitly for making hydrogen bonds.

Player of the Week

Shoutout to HuubR for being a big help in chat this week!

Today’s Master Folding Tips

Beginner: Having trouble with the tutorials? Check out this tutorial guide by S0ckrates! Or check the wiki for walkthroughs! Or ask questions in chat, there's lots of friendly folks happy to help you!

Intermediate: Having lots of candy cane colored hydrogen bonds is nice, but good packing is better. Rather than trying to make hydrogen bonds appear, focus on satisfying as many polar groups as you can and aligning the bond angles for strong connections. (This tip courtesy of uihcv, thanks!)

Expert: Sometimes the best way to learn is to teach. Take a look at your group's shares and try to evolve it by hand, consciously. Think about why you're making the changes you're making, and leave notes on what you did and why. Share it back with the original creator and talk to them about what you did to improve their design. You might learn a thing or two from the process!

Want more tips and news? Subscribe to our YouTube channel and click the bell icon so you get notified when our lab reports go live!

Until next time, happy folding!

[agcohn821]

Newsletter September 18: Coming Up Roses

Hey folders!

Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.

Solutions from This Week's Puzzles

(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)

Puzzle 1888: Symmetric Trimer Design: H-Bond Networks

Puzzle 1889: Coronavirus Anti-inflammatory Design 12

Recipe of the Week

This week's recipe is one of Rav3n_pl's GAB recipes, cleaned up by <a href=https://fold.it/portal/user/447652>Bruno Kestemont.</a> Try it out for some mid to late game improvements!

Player of the Week

A big Foldit welcome to Jumper2, one of our newest folders who has been great company in chat and a big help in providing feedback on the Discord. Jumper2 is one of the newest members of Gargleblasters. Thanks for folding with us!

Art of the Week

This week's art is titled "Bouquet of Roses" by BootsMcGraw. Not only is this four-helix design pretty, it's one of the top scoring solutions of puzzle 1888! Great job Boots! Want to fold with the famous cowboy of Foldit? Join the Contenders!

Today’s Master Folding Tips

Beginner: Are your loops too long? Most loops in the top Foldit designs are 5 residues or shorter! Bruno's Design Models is also a great way to get started with a design!

Intermediate: Challenge yourself to try something new every puzzle! Try a new recipe or a new strategy every time. Don't forget to write down what you did to collect notes on what worked and what didn't!

Expert: Want to shift an end residue to the other end? Here's a tip from Timo and Susume: 1) Use AA Edit to copy out your amino acid sequence; 2) Set your whole protein to be one long sheet; 3) Use tweak to flip the sheet once; 4) Use AA Edit again with your residue shifted to the other end to reapply your AA sequence how you want it. (Presumably, you also return your SS to how you want it!) Thanks Timo and Susume for the tip!

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter for the latest updates on your favorite protein-based game through your favorite bird-based social media platform!

Until next time, happy folding!

[agcohn821]

Newsletter September 25: Raspberry Remix

Hey folders!

Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update. Got a Raspberry Pi and want to run Foldit on it? Check out this player's guide on our forums!

Solutions from This Week's Puzzles

Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)

Puzzle 1890: Revisiting Puzzle 136: Cell Adhesion

Puzzle 1891: Symmetric Trimer Design: H-bond Networks

Puzzle 1892: Coronavirus Binder Design: Round 18

Recipe of the Week

This week's recipe is the classic Deep Remix Worst by Timo van der Laan, or TvdL's DRemixW for short. This great late game recipe can help remix your design automatically, especially if you give it a few hours or even overnight.

Player of the Week

Shoutout to aqsw, one of the new folders for Go Science, for being so welcoming in the Foldit Discord! Glad to have you folding with us, aqsw!

Today’s Master Folding Tips

Beginner: Tired of wiggling all the time? Try running a recipe like this one!

Intermediate: Practice your hand-folding by challenging yourself to not run any recipes until late game!

Expert: You might know that the Blueprint tool adds torsional constraints, which is why you want to take them off during the late game. But did you know that those constraints are different than the ones the Blueprint starts in? Each Blueprint block has "adjusted" torsions so that things lock into place nicely when you're constructing a backbone from scratch. Then the torsional constraints help
bring things back into ideality the next time you wiggle. For example, if you made two ideal helices in Foldit and used an un-adjusted ideal AGBBA loop, the ideal helices would not align parallel to one another – they would flare off at a skew angle. Usually we want the helices to be parallel to each other, but this requires some tiny adjustments to "perfect ideality".
For more on the Blueprint tool, check out this blog post!

Missed this week's Office Hours? Check the transcripts here! Don't forget to give us feedback on them! Did we answer all of your questions? Do you want Office Hours to be something different? Let us know!

Until next time, happy folding!

[agcohn821]

Newsletter October 2: It's Fall Y'all

Hey folders!

Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update. Happy October! And Chag Sameach to all of our Jewish folders playing on this week of Sukkot.

Solutions from This Week's Puzzles

(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)

Puzzle 1894: Symmetric Trimer Design: H-Bond Networks

Puzzle 1895: Coronavirus Anti-inflammatory Design 13

Recipe of the Week

Do you enjoy running TvdL's DRemixW but wish that it stopped turning your hydrophobics into hydrophilics? Try Susume's Orange Guard version! Just freeze your hydrophobics before you run it, and this DRemixW variant will only mutate those residues into other hydrophobics. Thanks Susume!

Player of the Week

A quick shout-out today to Jumper2, one of the newest members of Gargleblasters and a welcome addition to the Foldit family! Thanks for all of your great questions and feedback!

Art of the Week

This week's art was made by malphis. Cool stuff! Want to make your own Foldit art? Post your screenshots on the Foldit Discord! This month's theme is: Pumpkins!

Today’s Master Folding Tips

Beginner: Challenge yourself to get 9,000 points on all of the Beginner puzzles! Then 10,000, then 11,000! Ask for help in chat if you get stuck on how you can make improvements, and share screenshots with the camera button.

Intermediate: Want to get a better SASA score for binder puzzles like Coronavirus? Try bander recipes, like Blue Fuse or Quake. Thanks nspc for the tip!

Expert: Here's a handy cheat sheet for ideal loops in the Rama map, courtesy of uihcv! Notice that one of the loops (Helix-Helix; red green blue blue red) has the second (green) residue in an unsatisfactory region. Curious why that is? Check out last week's expert tip to find out!

Missed this month's Lab Report? Check it out here! And don't forget to come to next week's Office Hours with Dr. Scott Horowitz, on Friday Oct. 9 at 19:30 UTC (12:30pm PT; 3:30pm ET) in #veteran chat, or on the Foldit Discord!

Until next time, happy folding!

[agcohn821]

Newsletter October 9: Making a Tri-Dent in Coronavirus

Hey folders!

Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.

Solutions from This Week's Puzzles

(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)

Puzzle 1897: Symmetric Trimer Design: H-Bond Networks

Look at all these great sheets! Coloring in CPK.

Puzzle 1898: Coronavirus Binder Design: Round 19

Triple helix is still the best way to go, but how do you attach? Here are some top scoring examples! Coloring in ABEGO.

Recipe of the Week

Looking for something new to shake out your design draft in the early game? Try this recipe by Bruno Kestemont! A few mutates, some shakes and wiggles, you can't go wrong!

Player of the Week

A big thanks to JoannaH for folding with us since 2010! Joanna was the top scorer for Coronavirus Binder Design Round 19 and currently holds the top spot in this week's Anti-Inflammatory Design Round 14! Plus, she's just a great person to talk to. Say hi next time you see her in chat!

Art of the Week

This week's art comes to us from Formula350: "Poseidon's Trident". Nice one, Formula!

Today’s Master Folding Tips

Beginner: Did you know you can band the protein to empty space? Drag a band from the protein to any point in space to create a zero-length band ("ZLB"), also known as a spaceband. This band will try to hold that part of the protein exactly where you point it to in 3D space!

Intermediate: Having trouble with BUNS? Try hand-folding them into a better position in the mid-game, then freeze them where they are while the BUNS are resolved for your late game refinement.

Expert: Don't forget to update your recipes with these latest versions! HNetwork Probe 2.1 by spvincent, Design Models 2.3.3 by Bruno Kestemont, and Simulated Annealing 5.0 by KarenCH just came out this week!

Have a question about the science of Foldit? Ask it in our #science channel on Discord!

Until next time, happy folding!

[agcohn821]

Newsletter October 16: Galaxie Breaks a New Record!

Hey folders!

Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.

Solutions from This Week's Puzzles

(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)

Puzzle 1900: Symmetric Trimer Design: H-Bond Networks

There were a lot of diverse solutions this week with really great networks (in my non-scientist opinion). Check out all these different structures!

Puzzle 1901: Coronavirus Anti-inflammatory Design 14

Recipe of the Week

Need some band utilities? Try band equalizer,
originally by truestone. This handy recipe can rapidly adjust band properties. Want all your bands of length 3.5 to be length 2.0? Done. Want every
band to be strength 10? You got it. Never manually adjust band properties again, this recipe does it all at once!

Player of the Week

A huge congratulations to Galaxie
for being the first player ever to earn 100,000 overall soloist points!! This is absolutely incredible dedication. Want to play on Galaxie's team? Join Anthropic Dreams!

Art of the Week

From biochemistry to biology, this week's art comes from Formula350! Keep crawling on!

Today’s Master Folding Tips

Beginner: Did you know there are a bunch of different options for viewing your protein? Try playing around with the View settings, you might find that different settings help you in the early, mid, and late game of a puzzle!

Intermediate:
Here's a few binding tips from nspc:
try to make a stable protein before binding to your target. Don't forget to pull it away again to make sure it's still stable after you optimize it! The protein needs to be stable on its own as well as when binded. Nspc's strategy is to detach, mutate, attach, mutate, and repeat. But JoannaH's strategy is to do most of her mutating detached, then try mutating as little as possible while attaching to the target.

Expert: Do you know your Koga & Koga rules for connecting sheets and helices together in short loops? Check out this wiki page for quick tips on what kind of chirality and parallelity each loop type prefers!

Have a tip, recipe, or artwork submission for the next newsletter? Ping @Josh on the Foldit Discord with your suggestions.

Until next time, happy folding!

[agcohn821]

Newsletter October 23: Two helices, both alike in dignity...

Hey folders!

Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.

Solutions from This Week's Puzzles

(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)

Puzzle 1903: Two-Sided Interface Design

Puzzle 1904: Coronavirus Binder Design 20

Recipe of the Week

An old recipe, but a fan-favorite. Make your helices curlier with the Helix Curler by Rav3n_pl!

Player of the Week

This week's spotlight goes to NeLikomSheet!
Although they've only been folding since March, they made it to the #3 spot on the latest Aflatoxin challenge. Great job!

Today’s Master Folding Tips

Beginner: Once you're in a group, you can load in other groupmates' solutions and improve them for points! This is one of the best ways of learning how to fold.

Intermediate: Remember "MALEK": methionine, alanine, leucine, glutamate, and lysine. These are the amino acids that love to be in helices!

Expert: Make sure you're familiar with all of the hotkeys Foldit has to offer so that you can fold at your fastest!

Until next time, happy folding!

[agcohn821]

Newsletter October 30: Sliders and Spirals

Hey folders!

Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.

Solutions from This Week's Puzzles

(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)

Puzzle 1907: MERS-CoV Binder Design

Puzzle 1905: Aflatoxin Challenge: Round 19 Loop Prediction

Art of the Week

This week's artwork comes from Formula350 and Ridick051!

Players of the Week

A huge thanks goes out this week to our volunteer contributors: LociOiling and NinjaGreg. Some of their improvements to the game will be rolling out this month and next, so if you see them in chat, give them thanks for volunteering their time to make Foldit better!

Today’s Master Folding Tips

Beginner: Do you use the Clashing Importance (CI) while wiggling, shaking, or mutating? Try lowering the CI to let the protein pack itself tighter, then raise it up again to let it relax! Intermediate: Use the "Show bondable atoms" and "Show bondable hydrogens" visualization options to see what you can line up to form new bonds! Expert: Wondering how to use the new devprev features? Use the new hbond sliders to change the priority of forming hydrogen bonds! The backbone hbond slider is for backbone-backbone hbonds only, while the sidechain slider is for any hbonds that involve sidechains, including to ligands and binder targets! Try raising the slider up to force bonds, then relaxing it down. Remember that you are scored at the sliders' default values: like CI, tweaking the slider might help you form a better shape, but it won't get you a better score directly. There are also new Lua functions to use these sliders, as well as hidden sliders for packing, pairwise, and density subscores! Check out the documentation here! Have a safe and happy Halloween! And until next time, happy folding!

[agcohn821]

Newsletter November 6: Folding Tetris

Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.

Solutions from This Week's Puzzles

(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)

Puzzle 1909: Symmetric Tetramer Design: H-Bond Networks

There were lots of cool tetramer designs this week! Here's some music to listen to while you fold your tetramers!

Puzzle 1910: MERS-CoV Binder Design: Round 2

Player of the Week

A big thanks to leejunil06 (aka cjddig) for working on a Korean translation of Foldit! Thanks so much for your volunteer efforts!

Today’s Master Folding Tips

Beginner: Having short loops and long helices is one of the easiest ways to rank up in the leaderboards! This helps you focus on the fundamentals of refining a fold.

Intermediate: Are you getting full points from the metrics bonuses? The best way you can contribute to science is to design a protein with full metrics bonuses, share it with scientists, then start over and repeat! Our scientists will really appreciate having multiple designs that meet all of our metric goals.

Expert: Wondering how to use the new sliders that everyone's talking about? Check out this wiki page for tips! Don't forget that there are new Lua functions for changing pairwise, packing, and density behavior too!

Have you figured out a good method for using the new sliders? Make a recipe and share it with everybody! You might be featured in next week's Recipe of the Week!

Until next time, happy folding!