Icon representing a puzzle

Beginner Puzzle: Coronavirus

Closed since 12 months ago

Beginner

Summary

Created
February 13, 2025
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 Street Smarts
    1. Street Smarts
    100 pts. 12,999
  2. Avatar for L'Alliance Francophone 2. L'Alliance Francophone 56 pts. 12,988
  3. Avatar for BIOB101 - Discover Biology 3. BIOB101 - Discover Biology 29 pts. 12,665
  4. Avatar for Rechenkraft.net 4. Rechenkraft.net 14 pts. 11,987
  5. Avatar for Go Science 5. Go Science 6 pts. 11,939
  6. Avatar for Team China 6. Team China 2 pts. 11,904
  7. Avatar for PS, we are Benelux Digital 7. PS, we are Benelux Digital 1 pt. 11,753
  8. Avatar for FAU Chemistry Club 8. FAU Chemistry Club 1 pt. 11,753
  9. Avatar for cool sicence 9. cool sicence 1 pt. 11,753
  10. Avatar for University of British Columbia (UBC) 10. University of British Columbia (UBC) 1 pt. 11,753
  1. Avatar for SophieYang 281. SophieYang Lv 1 3 pts. 11,753
  2. Avatar for ajaysr04 282. ajaysr04 Lv 1 3 pts. 11,753
  3. Avatar for isabellagallio 283. isabellagallio Lv 1 3 pts. 11,753
  4. Avatar for jajulie26 284. jajulie26 Lv 1 3 pts. 11,753
  5. Avatar for jenp811 285. jenp811 Lv 1 3 pts. 11,753
  6. Avatar for twinkletoes 286. twinkletoes Lv 1 3 pts. 11,753
  7. Avatar for aku 287. aku Lv 1 3 pts. 11,753
  8. Avatar for Avneeto 288. Avneeto Lv 1 3 pts. 11,753
  9. Avatar for YashitaK 289. YashitaK Lv 1 3 pts. 11,753
  10. Avatar for cakirm 290. cakirm Lv 1 3 pts. 11,753

Comments