Icon representing a puzzle

Beginner Puzzle: Coronavirus

Closed since 5 months ago

Beginner

Summary


Created
September 11, 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 Brain Nourishment 100 pts. 13,232
  2. Avatar for BIOL2020AB Fall2025 2. BIOL2020AB Fall2025 74 pts. 12,993
  3. Avatar for Antharis Therapeutics 3. Antharis Therapeutics 54 pts. 12,981
  4. Avatar for L'Alliance Francophone 4. L'Alliance Francophone 38 pts. 12,928
  5. Avatar for CBE_ProEn_2025 5. CBE_ProEn_2025 27 pts. 12,927
  6. Avatar for BCH3025 S25 6. BCH3025 S25 18 pts. 12,825
  7. Avatar for ddd 7. ddd 12 pts. 12,677
  8. Avatar for Street Smarts 9. Street Smarts 5 pts. 12,554
  9. Avatar for Folders_BIOL6105 10. Folders_BIOL6105 3 pts. 12,157

  1. Avatar for trey.mcdonald 621. trey.mcdonald Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753
  2. Avatar for kimsunny4 622. kimsunny4 Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753
  3. Avatar for samuel040701 623. samuel040701 Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753
  4. Avatar for HaPhi7536 624. HaPhi7536 Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753
  5. Avatar for ryujin0813 625. ryujin0813 Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753
  6. Avatar for lhouston777 626. lhouston777 Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753
  7. Avatar for gurtram 627. gurtram Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753
  8. Avatar for mpak 628. mpak Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753
  9. Avatar for Everestpinguin 629. Everestpinguin Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753
  10. Avatar for Utisha 630. Utisha Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753

Comments