Newsletter April 9: Are you an early bird?
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 1973: Tie2 Binder Design: Round 1
Designs by: NinjaGreg, sgeldhof, silent gene, and WakeOwl
Puzzle 1974: Symmetric Trimer Design: H-Bond Networks
Designs by BootsMcGraw, argyrw, fiendish_ghoul, Bruno Kestemont, and silent gene
Recipe of the Week
Now that it’s April, the worms are coming out! And check out this worm by ichwilldiesennamen. It’ll wiggle, mutate, and shake its way along your protein to improve your score without hurting your Objective bonuses.
Leaderboard Highlights
Let’s take a quick look at the tops of our leaderboards!
#1 on Puzzle 1973: toshiue
#1 on Puzzle 1974: BootsMcGraw
#1 Evolver: mirp
#1 Soloist: ichwilldiesennamen
Today’s Master Folding Tips
Did you know you can view old puzzle results here? Browse Foldit’s history to see what a good solution looks like!
Are you a recipe writer and wish there was more information from the Objectives? Hop onto our Discord and message @josh with the Objective you’d like more information about. We’re looking into adding more Lua functions to tell you everything the Objectives know about your protein!
Until next time, happy folding!
Newsletter April 16: How to Make a Triple Helix in Under 6 Minutes
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 1976: Influenza HA Binder Design: Round 5
Puzzle 1977: Symmetric Tetramer Design: H-bond Networks
Puzzle 1978: Designer Protein Top7
Player of the Week
This week’s highlight is robgee! Rob folds for Anthropic Dreams and has been playing since 2013! But robgee isn’t just any folding veteran, they’re also helpful to new players in #global chat. Say hi next time you see them in chat!
Upcoming Updates
Here are some improvements you can look forward to in the next devprev release:
- Added new Dojo levels
- Updated some Dojo levels for difficulty balance
- Dojo mode now includes a Reset Puzzle button (but any Stamina spent will remain spent)
- Dojo mode now includes a "Skip Level" button to give up on the current level
- Not sure what Dojo mode is? Check it out in devprev!
Today’s Master Folding Tips
Check out this guide by nspc on how to create a triple helix in less than 6 minutes! They use this recipe to sketch out their helices.
Don’t forget to check out the next Office Hour with our website developer and systems admin jflat06 this Sunday (Apr 18) at 1pm Pacific Time! Can’t make it? Send in your question to mail.fold.it@gmail.com!
Until next time, happy folding!
Newsletter April 23: Don't Miss This Talk by Dr. David Baker!
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 1979: TGF Receptor Binder Design
Puzzle 1980: Symmetric Trimer Design: H-Bond Networks
Puzzle 1981: Halorhodopsin
Recipe of the Week
Time to up your remix game with spvincent’s latest Loop Remix 11! This mid/late game remixer is much simpler and best for idealizing your loops in design puzzles. The details of how to use this recipe and all of its options are outlined by spvincent on the recipe page.
In Case You Missed It
David Baker, head of Foldit’s primary lab at the University of Washington, will be giving a lecture on “The Coming of Age of Denovo Protein Design” this Tuesday, April 27 at 4pm BST. The talk is free on Zoom, and more details can be found here. Thanks Susume for sharing this news on our forum!
Today’s Master Folding Tips
When using Blueprint, the residues are indexed as 1, 2, 3… To find a residue’s index, press Tab while hovering over a residue. This also shows more detailed information like what amino acid it is and a breakdown of how it’s scoring and why.
Reading this newsletter on the forums? Click here to get them sent straight to your email as soon as they go out!
Until next time, happy folding!
Newsletter April 30: It’s Gonna Be May!
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 1983: Designable Linker: Coronavirus Spike Binder
Puzzle 1984: TNK1 with Density
In Case You Missed It
What’s scientifically valuable about symmetric designs? Find out in this forum thread with discussions by our in-house scientist bkoep!
Missed last week’s talk on “The coming of age of de novo protein design” by Dr. David Baker? Watch the recording here!
Today’s Master Folding Tips
Mutate can often put serine and threonine in your core when you really need hydrophobics.
Here are some mutate recipes to help with that: Maaa, Local Mutate, Mutate No Wiggle.
Foldit’s Turning 13!
Foldit’s 13th birthday is coming up on May 8th! Have you told your friends about Foldit? If this newsletter has 100 signups by May 8th, I’ll share some pictures of my cats as thanks!
Until next time, happy folding!
Newsletter May 7: Happy 13th Birthday, Foldit!
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update.
Tomorrow is Foldit’s 13th birthday! We’re celebrating with a special science chat with the whole dev team! Check out the details here.
Solutions from This Week's Puzzles
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Puzzle 1985: TGF Receptor Binder Design
Puzzle 1986: Biotin Ligand Binder Design
Recipe of the Week
What’s a birthday party without ice cream cake? Of course, the best way to make ice cream cake is to Freeze All Sheets. And now you can, easy, thanks to srssmith92!
Today’s Master Folding Tips
Having trouble with your loops? Here’s a thread from the past if you want to get into some of the nitty-gritty, but some of the takeaways are: use freeze or cutpoints to isolate your loop, mutate everything to glycine (the one with no sidechain at all), and use the Rama map by finding those sidechains and dragging them into a colored region. Still having trouble? Post a screenshot to our Discord to get some help!
Don’t forget! If this newsletter has 100 signups by Foldit's birthday tomorrow, I’ll share some pictures of my cats as thanks!
Until next time, happy folding!
Newsletter May 14: Eid Mubarak!
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update. Happy Eid al-Fitr to all who celebrate!
Solutions from This Week's Puzzles
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Puzzle 1988: Tie2 Binder Design
Puzzle 1989: Symmetric Tetramer Design: H-Bond Networks
Puzzle 1990: TNK1 with Density
Player of the Week
Congratulations to Bruno Kestemont for finally (after 9 years!) joining his own list of “Gold Players” who have achieved a worldwide #1 soloist rank!
Today’s Master Folding Tips
Forming good hbond networks is really important for a binder design. Good thing the wiki has tips and tricks!
Need some company while you fold? Take my cats!
Until next time, happy folding!
Newsletter May 21: A Change of Seasons
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update. The seasons are a-changin’! It’s getting to be summer here in the U.S., and with it will come a host of new updates for Foldit. Dojo mode will be going live soon, so if you haven’t had a chance to check out the preview, you’ll get to play it shortly! We’re also hard at work on the new website, polishing up some front-end stuff so it’s nice and pretty when we release it.
Solutions from This Week's Puzzles
Want to have your name displayed with your solutions? Add your name to our opt-in form!
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Puzzle 1991: TGF Receptor Binder Design
Puzzle 1992: Symmetric D2 Tetramer Design: H-Bond Networks
Puzzle 1993: Thioredoxin
Today’s Master Folding Tips
The chat is one of your most valuable tools! Talk about your fold when you get stuck, add a screenshot, and you might just help yourself and others figure out your folds better!
Have a question about Foldit? Send it in to mail.fold.it@gmail.com and it might get answered in the next newsletter!
Until next time, happy folding!
Newsletter May 28: Wiggling Spaghetti? Use Your Noodle!
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 1994: Influenza HA Binder Design
Puzzle 1995: Symmetric Trimer Design: H-Bond Networks
Other Citizen Science Games You Might Like
If you like Foldit, you might enjoy these other citizen science games too!
Eterna is a 2D puzzle about RNA. Imagine if Foldit was 2D, your only tool was Mutate, and there were only 4 choices. Sound easy? It’s not! Dive into the world of Eterna now to help India design mRNAs against B.1.617!
Do you prefer to chill out and color stuff in using your spatial reasoning skills? Check out Mozak and Eyewire, where you can help scientists map neurons in 3D space and better understand our brains!
Today’s Master Folding Tips
When you feel like you’re just moving spaghetti around, take a moment to pause and set a goal for yourself. Maybe you want your helices to look more straight, or your sheets to line up better. Set subgoals to work toward instead of vaguely wiggling toward a higher score. More often than not, you need to ignore your score for a while until your protein looks ready for polish!
Want to put your skills to the test? Try the new Dojo mode, out now! We’re still hammering the bugs out of this new game mode, so if you run into any issues, please report them here!
Until next time, happy folding!
Newsletter June 4: P2K!
Hey folders!
Dev Josh here with your weekly Foldit update. Wow, can you believe we’ve launched 2000 puzzles? Incredible! Thank you for all of your help! With each puzzle, we step closer to understanding protein design and prediction, advancing our understanding of the world and what we can do with proteins. Here’s to 2000 more!
Solutions from This Week's Puzzles
(Disclaimer: This is not scientific feedback; these solutions are not officially endorsed by the Foldit scientists.)
Puzzle 1996: Unsolved Astrovirus Capsid
Puzzle 1997: TGF Receptor Binder Design
Puzzle 1998: Symmetric D2 Tetramer Design: Limited Interface
Upcoming Updates
Here’s what the devs have been working on lately:
- Polishing improvements to the new website
- Bug fixes to “Hello Blueprint”
- New Lua functions
- Updates to Education Mode
- Code improvements for our puzzle creation process
And a special thanks to our volunteer contributors for helping with these updates!
Today’s Master Folding Tips
In case you missed it, check this thread for everything you need to know about how to play Foldit!
And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you get notified when there’s a new Lab Report!
Until next time, happy folding!
Newsletter June 11: Soon with Even More Bits!
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 1999: Tie2 Binder Design
Puzzle 2000: Symmetric D2 Tetramer Design: Limited Interface
Upcoming Updates
What have the developers been working on recently? Here are some of our projects in the works:
- A 64-bit version of Foldit for Windows
- New puzzles for Educational Mode
- Making recipes even easier to search, share, and download on the new website
- Speeding up the Dojo server (turns out we forgot to feed the ferrets!)
Today’s Master Folding Tips
Have you seen Foldit through the eyes of a scientist? Check out this three part video series! Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
Not in a group yet? Check out the Foldit groups to join one today!
Until next time, happy folding!
