Icon representing a puzzle

Beginner Puzzle: Coronavirus

Closed since 2 months ago

Beginner

Summary


Created
December 25, 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 CBE_ProEn_2025 100 pts. 13,025
  2. Avatar for Street Smarts 2. Street Smarts 41 pts. 12,978
  3. Avatar for BIOF215 3. BIOF215 14 pts. 12,964
  4. Avatar for HEHE 4. HEHE 4 pts. 12,536
  5. Avatar for Rechenkraft.net 5. Rechenkraft.net 1 pt. 12,285
  6. Avatar for uneRx 6. uneRx 1 pt. 11,753

  1. Avatar for vittoria valle 281. vittoria valle Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753
  2. Avatar for Songning 282. Songning Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753
  3. Avatar for Praveen_Chinthakindi 283. Praveen_Chinthakindi Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753
  4. Avatar for nnGocc 284. nnGocc Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753
  5. Avatar for Amk 285. Amk Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753
  6. Avatar for joppe 286. joppe Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753
  7. Avatar for Iluvatar 287. Iluvatar Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753
  8. Avatar for maple2345 288. maple2345 Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753
  9. Avatar for Cnwalsh16 289. Cnwalsh16 Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753
  10. Avatar for SounaLaMwuad 290. SounaLaMwuad Lv 1 1 pt. 11,753

Comments