Placeholder image of a protein
Icon representing a puzzle

Beginner Puzzle (<150): Coronavirus

Closed since almost 6 years ago

Beginner Beginner

Summary

Created
March 03, 2020
Expires
Max points
100
Description

Design a protein binder against coronavirus! The starting structure shows how the coronavirus spike protein binds to a human receptor protein. The coronavirus protein (in gray) is mostly frozen, except for the orange and blue sidechains at the binding site. The binding site of coronavirus sticks to the human protein (in color), and this allows the coronavirus to infect human cells. We want to design a new protein that can bind to coronavirus more tightly than the human protein! A tight binder could block the normal coronavirus-human interaction, and might be used as an antiviral drug against coronavirus! Refold and mutate the starting structure to increase your score and improve binding against coronavirus!



START HERE:

If you are new to Foldit, here are detailed instructions to get you started:

http://fold.it/portal/node/988864

_____________________________


If you want to fold proteins, know that there are many ways to play and this variety is the main value of Foldit :

- try all puzzles not only "Beginners" ones,

- fold first the ones you like the most,

- try it by yourself to understand what works and what doesn't,

- ask for tips in global chat when you think you don't understand something.

Top groups

  1. Avatar for Team India
    1. Team India
    100 pts. 13,879
  2. Avatar for Go Science 2. Go Science 96 pts. 13,837
  3. Avatar for Beta Folders 3. Beta Folders 92 pts. 13,744
  4. Avatar for Gargleblasters 4. Gargleblasters 88 pts. 13,675
  5. Avatar for SHELL 5. SHELL 84 pts. 13,610
  6. Avatar for Italiani Al Lavoro 6. Italiani Al Lavoro 80 pts. 13,491
  7. Avatar for Anthropic Dreams 7. Anthropic Dreams 77 pts. 13,457
  8. Avatar for Deleted group 8. Deleted group pts. 13,438
  9. Avatar for Team China 9. Team China 70 pts. 13,430
  10. Avatar for SHELL 2 10. SHELL 2 67 pts. 13,429
  1. Avatar for Threen 1081. Threen Lv 1 55 pts. 13,002
  2. Avatar for allisblau 1082. allisblau Lv 1 55 pts. 13,001
  3. Avatar for skovz99 1083. skovz99 Lv 1 55 pts. 13,001
  4. Avatar for darixchel 1084. darixchel Lv 1 55 pts. 13,001
  5. Avatar for natattackdekoker 1085. natattackdekoker Lv 1 55 pts. 13,001
  6. Avatar for yeonjae 1086. yeonjae Lv 1 55 pts. 13,001
  7. Avatar for Kret_polny 1087. Kret_polny Lv 1 55 pts. 13,001
  8. Avatar for 2gentgesdodsonxe 1088. 2gentgesdodsonxe Lv 1 55 pts. 13,001
  9. Avatar for hasch2020 1089. hasch2020 Lv 1 55 pts. 13,001
  10. Avatar for ad0nis 1090. ad0nis Lv 1 55 pts. 13,001

Comments

bkoep Staff Lv 1

The solutions from this Beginner puzzle are incompatible with other non-Beginner puzzles,. Players may not load solutions from this puzzle into other coronavirus puzzles.