Icon representing a puzzle

Beginner Puzzle: Coronavirus

Closed since 10 months ago

Beginner

Summary


Created
April 24, 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. 13,503
  2. Avatar for night people 2. night people 70 pts. 13,455
  3. Avatar for L'Alliance Francophone 3. L'Alliance Francophone 47 pts. 13,097
  4. Avatar for Street Smarts 4. Street Smarts 30 pts. 13,089
  5. Avatar for Go Science 5. Go Science 19 pts. 13,052
  6. Avatar for OmHS 6. OmHS 11 pts. 13,025
  7. Avatar for Team China 8. Team China 4 pts. 12,972
  8. Avatar for Advanced Bio 2 MVS 9. Advanced Bio 2 MVS 2 pts. 12,885
  9. Avatar for Russian team 10. Russian team 1 pt. 12,551

  1. Avatar for eragonnier 91. eragonnier Lv 1 28 pts. 12,218
  2. Avatar for DrElP13 92. DrElP13 Lv 1 27 pts. 12,217
  3. Avatar for itomato 93. itomato Lv 1 27 pts. 12,214
  4. Avatar for daikins 94. daikins Lv 1 27 pts. 12,210
  5. Avatar for ustb202242535 95. ustb202242535 Lv 1 26 pts. 12,187
  6. Avatar for yianlee2008 96. yianlee2008 Lv 1 26 pts. 12,185
  7. Avatar for blumac81 97. blumac81 Lv 1 25 pts. 12,182
  8. Avatar for Mr.Pale 98. Mr.Pale Lv 1 25 pts. 12,177
  9. Avatar for 666Y 99. 666Y Lv 1 24 pts. 12,175
  10. Avatar for MaxenceDF 100. MaxenceDF Lv 1 24 pts. 12,163

Comments