The developers of Foldit this week released a new puzzle called “Coronavirus Spike Protein Binder Design,” which would allow users to attempt to create an antiviral protein that will counteract the coronavirus’s spike protein. According to the puzzle’s description: [Read: Alibaba’s new AI system can detect coronavirus in seconds with 96% accuracy] There are two different “difficulty levels” within the puzzle. In the easier of the two, players fold an existing coronavirus binding protein. In the harder, they design the protein from scratch. The most promising solutions players come up with will be tested at UW’s Institute for Protein Design. It wouldn’t be a cure by any stretch, but it’d be a start. Foldit has upwards of 200,000 players, says UW, so it’d be interesting to see what, if anything, they can discover through the sheer power of numbers. Foldit isn’t the only program using regular people to help fight the coronavirus. [email protected] is also researching new protein structures, and is calling upon those with “unused computational resources” to donate them to the research effort, with their power being used to generate more data that might lead to a vaccine. If you’re interested in trying the game out, you can find it on Foldit’s website here. You’ll need to download Foldit and play the tutorial puzzles to start. The game is free-to-play. For more information about the coronavirus, please visit the following sources:
World Health Organization COVID-19 Q&A European Center for Disease Control and prevention facts on COVID-19 Center for Disease Control COVID-19 facts
