Icon representing a puzzle

Beginner Puzzle: Coronavirus

Closed since over 1 year ago

Beginner

Summary


Created
September 26, 2024
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! This is a Beginner puzzle for new players that have joined Foldit in the last 6 months.

Top groups


  1. Avatar for I-14 Salt Bridges 100 pts. 13,594
  2. Avatar for VeFold 2. VeFold 65 pts. 13,419
  3. Avatar for Street Smarts 3. Street Smarts 41 pts. 12,991
  4. Avatar for CBME5920_2022 4. CBME5920_2022 24 pts. 12,931
  5. Avatar for Czech National Team 5. Czech National Team 14 pts. 12,928
  6. Avatar for GUGITBIOTECH 6. GUGITBIOTECH 7 pts. 12,526
  7. Avatar for CBE_ProEn_2025 8. CBE_ProEn_2025 2 pts. 12,367
  8. Avatar for L'Alliance Francophone 9. L'Alliance Francophone 1 pt. 12,121
  9. Avatar for Coastal Biochemistry 10. Coastal Biochemistry 1 pt. 11,901

  1. Avatar for msdegani 71. msdegani Lv 1 50 pts. 12,689
  2. Avatar for caleighstover 72. caleighstover Lv 1 49 pts. 12,680
  3. Avatar for Paulaaguilarg 73. Paulaaguilarg Lv 1 49 pts. 12,665
  4. Avatar for roshan 74. roshan Lv 1 48 pts. 12,641
  5. Avatar for jpalmer4 75. jpalmer4 Lv 1 48 pts. 12,634
  6. Avatar for D_Hydrogen 76. D_Hydrogen Lv 1 47 pts. 12,623
  7. Avatar for Areyes001 77. Areyes001 Lv 1 47 pts. 12,601
  8. Avatar for yvette 78. yvette Lv 1 46 pts. 12,572
  9. Avatar for MICH 79. MICH Lv 1 46 pts. 12,555
  10. Avatar for Gumpus2026 80. Gumpus2026 Lv 1 45 pts. 12,551

Comments