Icon representing a puzzle

Beginner Puzzle: Coronavirus

Closed since 11 months ago

Beginner

Summary


Created
March 20, 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 Anthropic Dreams 100 pts. 13,602
  2. Avatar for L'Alliance Francophone 2. L'Alliance Francophone 63 pts. 13,148
  3. Avatar for OmHS 3. OmHS 37 pts. 12,961
  4. Avatar for Mac Users 4. Mac Users 21 pts. 12,926
  5. Avatar for Oakland FlexTech 5. Oakland FlexTech 11 pts. 12,807
  6. Avatar for Team China 6. Team China 5 pts. 12,586
  7. Avatar for Street Smarts 7. Street Smarts 2 pts. 12,466
  8. Avatar for Go Science 9. Go Science 1 pt. 12,385
  9. Avatar for CHEM1210/1020 TTU 10. CHEM1210/1020 TTU 1 pt. 12,255

  1. Avatar for ZhuDi 31. ZhuDi Lv 1 73 pts. 13,005
  2. Avatar for Liu_wenjie 32. Liu_wenjie Lv 1 72 pts. 12,999
  3. Avatar for MavericGamer 33. MavericGamer Lv 1 71 pts. 12,997
  4. Avatar for annekrzy16 34. annekrzy16 Lv 1 70 pts. 12,995
  5. Avatar for lLurenbing 35. lLurenbing Lv 1 70 pts. 12,991
  6. Avatar for Neuro_Kai 36. Neuro_Kai Lv 1 69 pts. 12,990
  7. Avatar for Garemma 37. Garemma Lv 1 68 pts. 12,988
  8. Avatar for nicai 38. nicai Lv 1 67 pts. 12,988
  9. Avatar for Kasia5611 39. Kasia5611 Lv 1 66 pts. 12,987
  10. Avatar for lyricalcarpenter 40. lyricalcarpenter Lv 1 66 pts. 12,985

Comments