Foldit Puzzles

1857: Refinement Puzzle: R1029

CASP14 has released this refinement target with this additional explanation: "Hard refinement target. Starting model's GDT_HA=28." This means that less than one third of this starting model matches the unreleased native structure. Try exploring as far as you can from the starting structure!

1856: Coronavirus Binder Design: Round 12

Design a binder against coronavirus! Now the Buried Unsats Objective has been reactivated and will incur a 60 pt penalty for each BUNS atom. If your designed protein creates Buried Unsats, then it will be less likely to fold and bind to the coronavirus target. (Note that this target protein includes 8 buried unsats that players may be unable to fix.) See the blog for more details about buried unsats, and for helpful tips to make a successful protein binder! Players may not load solutions from previous puzzles.

1855: Y1 Receptor ligand design

Use the new reaction design tool (blog post) to build a ligand which will bind well to the Y1 Receptor.

1854: Revisiting Puzzle 135: E. Coli

This is a throwback puzzle to the early days of Foldit. This protein comes from the bacteria Escherichia coli, but its function is still unknown! 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 puzzles that are still scientifically relevant.

1853: Symmetric Trimer Design: Buried Unsats

Design a symmetric protein trimer, with 3 identical chains that assemble together! This puzzle uses the Buried Unsats Objective, which penalizes buried polar atoms that can't make H-bonds. The H-bond Network Objective encourages players to build buried, satisfied H-bond networks at the interface between symmetric chains. H-bond networks are a great way to introduce polar residues at the interface, but it's important that all of the bondable atoms make hydrogen bonds! In this puzzle, there are no limits on the Complex Core, but we've included the Complex Core objective so players can see the core residues that can be incorporated into H-bond Networks.

1852: Coronavirus Anti-inflammatory Design: Round 6

Design an anti-inflammatory protein for COVID-19! This puzzle is very much like our Round 5 Anti-inflammatory puzzle, but we've relaxed the restrictions on SER and THR in helices. The Buried Unsats Objective will not award any bonus or penalty points, but you can still use it to detect "unsatisfied" polar atoms that cannot make hydrogen bonds with the water surrounding the protein. If your designed protein creates Buried Unsats, then it will be less likely to fold and bind to the target. (Note that this target protein includes 15 buried unsats that players may be unable to fix.) See the blog for more details about buried unsats, and for helpful tips to make a successful protein binder! Players will be unable to load solutions from previous puzzles.

1851: Revisiting Puzzle 134: Rice

This is a throwback puzzle to the early days of Foldit. This protein shuttles lipids between cell membranes in the rice plant. The protein contains eight cysteines 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 and to provide newer players with problems that are still scientifically relevant.

1850: Symmetric Trimer Design: Buried Unsats

Symmetric puzzles are back! Design a symmetric protein trimer, with 3 identical chains that assemble together. This puzzle uses the new Buried Unsats Objective but this objective will not award any points. The H-bond Network Objective encourages players to bury satisfied H-bond networks at the interface between symmetric chains. H-bond networks are a great way to introduce polar residues at the interface, but it's important that all of the bondable atoms make hydrogen bonds! In this puzzle, there are no limits on the Complex Core, but we've included the Complex Core objective so players can see the core residues that can be incorporated into H-bond Networks.

1849: Coronavirus Binder Design: Round 11

Design a binder against coronavirus! In this puzzle, the Buried Unsats Objective will not award any bonus or penalty points, but you can still use it to detect "unsatisfied" polar atoms that cannot make hydrogen bonds with the water surrounding the protein. If your designed protein creates Buried Unsats, then it will be less likely to fold and bind to the coronavirus target. (Note that this target protein includes 8 buried unsats that players may be unable to fix.) See the blog for more details about buried unsats, and for helpful tips to make a successful protein binder! Players may not load solutions from previous puzzles.

1848: Revisiting Puzzle 126: Ethanolamine Utilization

This is a throwback puzzle to the early days of Foldit. This protein allows bacteria to metabolize ethanolamine and use it in constructing cell walls and cell membranes. The protein is modeled here in reduced form, so no disulfides are expected to form. 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 puzzles that are still scientifically relevant.