Foldit Puzzles

2498: Revisiting Puzzle 69: Scorpion Toxin

This is a throwback puzzle to the early days of Foldit. This scorpion toxin binds to voltage-gated ion channels in insects, resulting in full-body paralysis. The protein contains eight cysteine residues that oxidize to form four disulfide bonds. We are revisiting old Foldit puzzles so we can see how useful the recent additions to the game have been.

2497: KCNQ1 Round 8

KCNQ1 is a critical gene that helps regulate the heart's rhythm by encoding the Kv7.1 potassium ion channel. Mutations in KCNQ1 can cause congenital long QT syndrome (LQTS), an inherited heart condition that increases the risk of sudden cardiac death, especially in young people. In this puzzle, your challenge is to design a new activator for KCNQ1 that can restore function in variants linked to LQTS. For this puzzle we're going to switch up the task just a little. Now we want to target the Voltage Sensing Domain (VSD) of KCNQ1. It has been found that mutations to the VSD affect how effectively a protein is transported from its site of synthesis to the plasma membrane also known as trafficking. See blog post for more details, but note that we are looking at a different target site for KCNQ1 for this puzzle.

2496: Electron Density Reconstruction 101

The structure of this protein-DNA complex has already been solved and published, but close inspection suggests that there are some problems with the published solution. We'd like to see if Foldit players can use the same electron density data to reconstruct a better model. You may notice that there’s a base pair in here that doesn’t look normal; it’s a Hoogsteen base pair (as opposed to Watson-Crick). Later on, we’ll ask you to play another version of this puzzle where it’s been put in as Watson-Crick instead of Hoogsteen as we’d like to see which works better. Also, a reminder that DNA sidechains can be turned relative to their blue arms with bands.

2495: CASP16 Ligand Puzzle L5000

New CASP ligand target just dropped!

2494: KCNQ1 Round 7

KCNQ1 is a critical gene that helps regulate the heart's rhythm by encoding the Kv7.1 potassium ion channel. Mutations in KCNQ1 can cause congenital long QT syndrome (LQTS), an inherited heart condition that increases the risk of sudden cardiac death, especially in young people. In this puzzle, your challenge is to design a new activator for KCNQ1 that can restore function in variants linked to LQTS.

2493: Electron Density Reconstruction 100

Reconstruction Puzzle 100! We made it this far, congrats all! The structure of this protein has already been solved and published, but close inspection suggests that there are some problems with the published solution. We'd like to see if Foldit players can use the same electron density data to reconstruct a better model. For this first round of this puzzle, we won't have the Refine Density tool active. It is a bit large, so the Trim tool may be necessary.

2492: Revisiting Puzzle 68: Bos Taurus

This is a throwback puzzle to the early days of Foldit. This cow protein, found in epithelial cells of the intestine, binds calcium as it moves from the digestive tract into the blood. We are revisiting old Foldit puzzles so we can see how useful the recent additions to the game have been.

2491: KCNQ1 Round 6

KCNQ1 is a critical gene that helps regulate the heart's rhythm by encoding the Kv7.1 potassium ion channel. Mutations in KCNQ1 can cause congenital long QT syndrome (LQTS), an inherited heart condition that increases the risk of sudden cardiac death, especially in young people. In this puzzle, your challenge is to design a new activator for KCNQ1 that can restore function in variants linked to LQTS. For this puzzle we're going to switch up the task just a little. Now we want to target the Voltage Sensing Domain (VSD) of KCNQ1. It has been found that mutations to the VSD affect how effectively a protein is transported from its site of synthesis to the plasma membrane also known as trafficking. See blog post for more details, but note that we are looking at a different target site for KCNQ1 for this puzzle.

2490: Refine Density Reconstruction 3

This is a protein we've given before in puzzle 2466, which was Reconstruction Puzzle 92, but now we have the Refine Density tool available to make folds even better! Learn about the new tool here: https://fold.it/forum/blog/new-tool-refine-density. This one should allow loading solutions from that puzzle.

2489: Revisiting Puzzle 67: Integrase

This is a throwback puzzle to the early days of Foldit. This DNA-binding domain is part of a bacterial integrase protein, which facilitates the insertion of new DNA into the bacterial chromosome. We are revisiting old Foldit puzzles so we can see how useful the recent additions to the game have been.