Foldit Puzzles

2077: Revisiting Puzzle 92: Bacteria

This is a throwback puzzle to the early days of Foldit. In the struggle for limited resources, some strains of the bacteria E. coli produce a potent toxin to fight off competing strains. This small immunity protein protects the aggressor E. coli from falling victim to its own toxin. We are revisiting old Foldit puzzles so we can see how useful the recent additions to the game have been, and to provide newer players with easier puzzles that are still scientifically relevant.

2074b: VHL ligand design: Round 5b

Note: This is a repost of Puzzle 2074, but without the problematic 'Preserve Structure' objective. Solutions from the previous puzzles can be loaded into this one.

2076: Symmetric Tetramer Design with AlphaFold Predictions

Design a symmetric protein tetramer, with 4 identical chains of 80 residues each! This puzzle enables AlphaFold predictions for the monomer subunit of your design, so you can upload your solution for AlphaFold using the AlphaFold prediction tool. AlphaFold will predict the structure of your monomer subunit only (i.e. in the unbound state, in the absence of other symmetric copies). If you load this prediction, then Foldit will attempt to align the prediction with your solution. If you continue working off of the AlphaFold prediction, you may need to make adjustments at the interface where the monomer subunit interacts with symmetric copies.

2075: Revisiting Puzzle 91: Virus Protein

This is a throwback puzzle to the early days of Foldit. This protein is found on the surface of bacteriophage fd, a virus that infects E. coli. It is responsible for penetrating the cell membrane of the host bacteria, allowing virus to enter the cell. This protein contains four cysteines that oxidize to form two disulfide bonds. We are revisiting old Foldit puzzles so we can see how useful the recent additions to the game have been, and to provide newer players with easier puzzles that are still scientifically relevant.

2074: VHL ligand design: Round 5

Due to issues with objectives, this puzzle has been closed early and is now worth zero competition points. It has been reposted as Puzzle 2074b. All saved solutions from this puzzle can be loaded into the reposted puzzle.

Design of the Month: November 2021

This sandbox puzzle features a symmetric design by Skippysk8s, Enzyme, and an anonymous teammate in Puzzle 2050: Symmetric D2 Tetramer Design. This design has several polar residues that form a fully satisfied H-bond network buried at the interface between subunits. The polar atoms in this H-bond network will help ensure correct assembly, since these polar atoms are likely to create unstable BUNS in off-target assemblies. For more, check out Foldit Lab Report #26 on YouTube! This sandbox puzzle is non-competitive and will not award any points.

2073: Olivetolic Acid Ligand Binder Design: Round 2

Design a binding pocket for the olivetolic acid ligand! This puzzle enables AlphaFold predictions for your binder design, so you can upload your solution for AlphaFold using the AlphaFold prediction tool. AlphaFold will predict the structure of your binder only (i.e. in the absence of the ligand). If you load this prediction, then Foldit will attempt to align the prediction with your solution. If you continue working off of the AlphaFold prediction, you may need to make adjustments in the binding pocket where the ligand makes contact with your binder design.

2072: Revisiting Puzzle 90: Heliomicin

This is a throwback puzzle to the early days of Foldit. This small disulfide-rich protein is produced by the moth H. virescens as a defense against certain bacterial and fungal infections. This protein contains six cysteines that oxidize to form three disulfide bonds. We are revisiting old Foldit puzzles so we can see how useful the recent additions to the game have been.

2071: VHL ligand design: Round 4

Design a small molecule which can bind VHL! This is the third in a series of puzzles using the small molecule design tools to design small molecule binders to the von Hippel-Lindau E3 ubiquitin ligase. We don't want you to modify the protein, but instead we'd like you to build new small molecules which fit into the VHL pocket. See the new "Inside the Pocket" and "Fun with Fragments!" tutorials to learn how to use the small molecule design tools.

2070: Symmetric Tetramer Design with AlphaFold Predictions

Design a symmetric protein tetramer, with 4 identical chains of 60 residues each! This puzzle enables AlphaFold predictions for the monomer subunit of your design, so you can upload your solution for AlphaFold using the AlphaFold prediction tool. AlphaFold will predict the structure of your monomer subunit only (i.e. in the unbound state, in the absence of other symmetric copies). If you load this prediction, then Foldit will attempt to align the prediction with your solution. If you continue working off of the AlphaFold prediction, you may need to make adjustments at the interface where the monomer subunit interacts with symmetric copies.