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 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 frisk 171. frisk Lv 1 3 pts. 11,753
  2. Avatar for sophiewalter 172. sophiewalter Lv 1 3 pts. 11,753
  3. Avatar for oliviajo 173. oliviajo Lv 1 3 pts. 11,753
  4. Avatar for graciehennessy 174. graciehennessy Lv 1 3 pts. 11,753
  5. Avatar for soapee 175. soapee Lv 1 5 pts. 11,753
  6. Avatar for moyureem 176. moyureem Lv 1 5 pts. 11,753
  7. Avatar for Kev8mct 177. Kev8mct Lv 1 4 pts. 11,753
  8. Avatar for BlackFlash18 178. BlackFlash18 Lv 1 4 pts. 11,753
  9. Avatar for VW_Bay 179. VW_Bay Lv 1 4 pts. 11,753
  10. Avatar for lydiakoil 180. lydiakoil Lv 1 4 pts. 11,753

Comments