| abstract
| - Foldit offers two levels of puzzles that are played for points. New players who have completed intro puzzles can play beginner puzzles, and all players can play regular, non-beginner puzzles, which are marked as "intermediate" or "advanced". (See gameplay for more on the ins-and-outs of playing Foldit.) There are several types of non-beginner Foldit puzzles. Each type of puzzle has different scientific goals and calls for different strategies. As of January 2017, the most common types of Foldit puzzles are:
* design - players design a new protein, including the amino acid sequence, secondary structure, and overall shape
* de-novo - given a fixed sequence and a suggested secondary structure, players try to determine the overall shape
* revisiting - players try to solve previous puzzles
* symmetry - players try to design a protein that binds with one or more copies of itself In some cases, puzzles include additional information derived from experiments. Players can use this information as a guide to folding. The puzzle types of this type include:
* electron density - an electron density "cloud" is shown as a guide to folding
* contact map - the contact map shows which segments are likely to be "in contact" with each other In addition to regular design puzzles, previous Foldit puzzles have called for designs that target the HIV and Ebola viruses. These puzzles involved creating a small protein fragment that binds to a specific area of a virus. There will likely be new puzzles of this type in the future. Additionally, Foldit developers are working on new features for "small molecule design", which will eventually lead to a new category of puzzle:
* drug design - players design small non-protein molecules that bind to an existing protein There are also several types of Foldit puzzle seen in the past:
* GUI hand-folding - players are limited to handle folding and simple GUI recipes
* quest to the native (QTTN) - a translucent guide is shown, players can use hand folding and bands to match the protein to the guide
* centroid - sidechains aren't shown, each segment is seen as a fuzzy ball, players try to find the best overall shape
* multi-start - multiple starting poses are available, players try to find the one that produces the best overall shape
* alignment - multiple sequences are available in the alignment tool, players may align all or part of the protein to a given sequence to shape the protein
* exploration - an "exploration multiplier" affects the score, see "The story behind solution diversification (or exploration) puzzles"
* CASP - CASP is a scientific competition between protein-folding labs, held every two years. Foldit last participated in CASP 11, held in 2014, and sat out CASP 12 in 2016. These puzzle types may or may not reappear in the future.
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