1739: Aflatoxin Challenge: Round 13

Closed since over 6 years ago

Summary

• Created: September 30, 2019
• Expires: October 14, 2019 at 23:00 UTC
• Max points: 100

Description

The Aflatoxin Challenge is back! The Siegel Lab has found a new enzyme scaffold that is better suited to degrade the aflatoxin molecule, and they're asking Foldit players to redesign the enzyme so that it can bind aflatoxin more strongly! Players may insert up to 10 extra residues into two designable loops, at a cost of 20 points per residue. Players may also mutate the sidechains at positions 122 and 123, where the backbone is fixed. Parts of the scaffold protein have been trimmed to reduce the size of the puzzle, and we've upweighted ligand interactions by a factor of five. We'd like to see if Foldit players can design proteins that make more interactions with the ligand! See the blog for more details.



Aflatoxins are a class of poisonous compounds that contaminate a significant portion of the global food supply. In this puzzle, players are challenged to redesign an enzyme that could break down aflatoxin molecules. The majority of the protein is frozen, with the aflatoxin ligand fixed in a binding pocket. Surrounding the binding pocket are two loops that might be redesigned without affecting the folding stability of the protein. In these loops, players may manipulate the protein backbone and mutate the residue sidechains. Redesign the loops of this protein to better bind the aflatoxin ligand!



This is the 13th round of our Aflatoxin Challenge, sponsored by Mars Inc. and Thermo Fisher Scientific. Promising designs will be tested by the Siegel Lab at UC Davis. By participating in the challenge/game, the players agree that all player designs will be available permanently in the public domain, and the players will not seek intellectual property protection over the designs created as part of the challenge/game.

Top groups

• 11. FoldIt@Netherlands 3 pts. 9,655
• 12. HMT heritage 2 pts. 9,624
• 13. Italiani Al Lavoro 1 pt. 9,569
• 14. Marvin's bunch 1 pt. 9,471
• 15. Team New Zealand 1 pt. 9,405
• 16. GUGITBIOTECH 1 pt. 9,339
• 17. bioinforockers 1 pt. 9,266
• 18. Deleted group pts. 9,223
• 19. Trinity Biology 1 pt. 9,214
• 20. The Daydreamers 1 pt. 9,025

Top soloists

• 1. Bletchley Park 100 pts. 10,141
• 2. Enzyme 97 pts. 10,032
• 3. LociOiling 94 pts. 10,015
• 4. retiredmichael 91 pts. 9,939
• 5. Phyx 88 pts. 9,932
• 6. fiendish_ghoul 86 pts. 9,906
• 7. jobo0502 83 pts. 9,904
• 8. ZeroLeak7 80 pts. 9,895
• 9. Aubade01 77 pts. 9,845
• 10. spvincent 75 pts. 9,839

Comments

[NinjaGreg]

If you prepare the server database, then publicize it to the clients, then list it here, people couldn't download it from here before you were ready for it. Just sayin'.

[bkoep]

Hmm, all of that should have happened simultaneously at 23:00. Were you able to see this puzzle page before it was visible in the client?

[LociOiling]

Recently at least, puzzles are visible on the website before they show up in the game.

Someone thought the delay was exactly one hour, so possibly a time zone issue.

Some have also figured out there's download link on each puzzle page, a workaround for those who are in a hurry.

[bkoep]

Hmm, I wonder if the client is delayed for some reason. The next time we post a puzzle, I'll watch the server a little more closely and see if I can figure out what's going on.

[spvincent]

The delay seems to be exactly one hour in length. For example, the notification that the recent trimer puzzle had expired came at 5.00pm PST.