Icon representing a puzzle

Beginner Puzzle: Coronavirus

Closed since 7 months ago

Beginner

Summary


Created
July 03, 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 100 pts. 13,430
  2. Avatar for Go Science 2. Go Science 41 pts. 13,400
  3. Avatar for L'Alliance Francophone 3. L'Alliance Francophone 14 pts. 13,205
  4. Avatar for Bioqué? 4. Bioqué? 4 pts. 13,052
  5. Avatar for CHEM1210/1020 TTU 7. CHEM1210/1020 TTU 1 pt. 11,753

  1. Avatar for Nedy 101. Nedy Lv 1 11 pts. 11,870
  2. Avatar for Spud16 102. Spud16 Lv 1 11 pts. 11,869
  3. Avatar for ivenk 103. ivenk Lv 1 10 pts. 11,866
  4. Avatar for jansa 104. jansa Lv 1 10 pts. 11,859
  5. Avatar for Aerok 105. Aerok Lv 1 10 pts. 11,844
  6. Avatar for thssmfudb 106. thssmfudb Lv 1 9 pts. 11,837
  7. Avatar for kkw07054 107. kkw07054 Lv 1 9 pts. 11,829
  8. Avatar for ProfpESO 108. ProfpESO Lv 1 9 pts. 11,825
  9. Avatar for mamajuj 109. mamajuj Lv 1 9 pts. 11,804
  10. Avatar for Energybar 110. Energybar Lv 1 8 pts. 11,798

Comments