Icon representing a puzzle

Beginner Puzzle: Coronavirus

Closed since about 1 month 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 BioRob16 81. BioRob16 Lv 1 28 pts. 12,187
  2. Avatar for Erina 82. Erina Lv 1 27 pts. 12,183
  3. Avatar for cinogiinnto 83. cinogiinnto Lv 1 27 pts. 12,179
  4. Avatar for Femboy 84. Femboy Lv 1 26 pts. 12,173
  5. Avatar for davidcullinane 85. davidcullinane Lv 1 26 pts. 12,144
  6. Avatar for huhu129 86. huhu129 Lv 1 25 pts. 12,117
  7. Avatar for kota314159 87. kota314159 Lv 1 25 pts. 12,110
  8. Avatar for Mitra 88. Mitra Lv 1 24 pts. 12,099
  9. Avatar for kochede 89. kochede Lv 1 24 pts. 12,089
  10. Avatar for Midnight_01 90. Midnight_01 Lv 1 23 pts. 12,086

Comments