Icon representing a puzzle

Beginner Puzzle: Coronavirus

Closed since about 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
    1. 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
  7. Avatar for University of Washington 7. University of Washington 1 pt. 11,753
  1. Avatar for tris.crosby 131. tris.crosby Lv 1 10 pts. 11,890
  2. Avatar for szimmerman 132. szimmerman Lv 1 10 pts. 11,889
  3. Avatar for jimmymcgill 133. jimmymcgill Lv 1 10 pts. 11,889
  4. Avatar for luisfelipee 134. luisfelipee Lv 1 10 pts. 11,879
  5. Avatar for Jessix22 135. Jessix22 Lv 1 9 pts. 11,873
  6. Avatar for apocalips 136. apocalips Lv 1 9 pts. 11,864
  7. Avatar for mturmel 137. mturmel Lv 1 9 pts. 11,848
  8. Avatar for goodrich 138. goodrich Lv 1 9 pts. 11,846
  9. Avatar for Joni19 139. Joni19 Lv 1 9 pts. 11,838
  10. Avatar for Al20 140. Al20 Lv 1 8 pts. 11,836

Comments