Icon representing a puzzle

Beginner Puzzle: Coronavirus

Closed since 3 months ago

Beginner

Summary


Created
November 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 Street Smarts 100 pts. 12,948
  2. Avatar for CBE_ProEn_2025 2. CBE_ProEn_2025 63 pts. 12,880
  3. Avatar for Coastal Biochemistry 3. Coastal Biochemistry 37 pts. 12,775
  4. Avatar for Crosby Bio 222 F20 4. Crosby Bio 222 F20 21 pts. 12,427
  5. Avatar for CHEM1210/1020 TTU 5. CHEM1210/1020 TTU 11 pts. 12,312
  6. Avatar for Ubuntu 6. Ubuntu 5 pts. 12,291
  7. Avatar for munkykykyk 7. munkykykyk 2 pts. 12,226
  8. Avatar for People team 8. People team 1 pt. 12,157
  9. Avatar for BIOL2020AB Fall2025 9. BIOL2020AB Fall2025 1 pt. 11,753
  10. Avatar for Antharis Therapeutics 10. Antharis Therapeutics 1 pt. 11,753

  1. Avatar for mutsumi 121. mutsumi Lv 1 14 pts. 11,975
  2. Avatar for d-wade 06 122. d-wade 06 Lv 1 14 pts. 11,971
  3. Avatar for SamAG 123. SamAG Lv 1 13 pts. 11,971
  4. Avatar for juan the mexican 124. juan the mexican Lv 1 13 pts. 11,966
  5. Avatar for weatherfork 125. weatherfork Lv 1 13 pts. 11,962
  6. Avatar for kinakomochi0223 126. kinakomochi0223 Lv 1 13 pts. 11,939
  7. Avatar for Nischal 127. Nischal Lv 1 12 pts. 11,931
  8. Avatar for Jaque 128. Jaque Lv 1 12 pts. 11,931
  9. Avatar for VW_Bay 129. VW_Bay Lv 1 12 pts. 11,921
  10. Avatar for hwang36 130. hwang36 Lv 1 12 pts. 11,920

Comments