Scientists Use Online Game to Research COVID-19 Treatment

The creativity of citizen scientists could help researchers design proteins that may be able to fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Written byEmma Yasinski

| 3 min read

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Researchers are calling on citizen scientists to play a free online game called Foldit, in which they help design and identify proteins that may be able to bind to and neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that it uses to invade host cells. The scientists hope that players’ creations will yield insights that will allow them to create an effective antiviral therapy for COVID-19. Other researchers are asking citizens for help in a more passive way. The Scientist spoke with Brian Koepnick, who works on Foldit at the University of Washington Institute for Protein Design, about this project.

Brian Koepnick: Foldit is a free, online game that anyone in the world can download and run on their Mac, Linux, or Windows PC. The main drive of Foldit is our science puzzles. These are weekly challenges that we refresh every week . . . that are directly related ...

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Meet the Author

Emma Yasinski
Emma is a Florida-based freelance journalist and regular contributor for The Scientist. A graduate of Boston University’s Science and Medical Journalism Master’s Degree program, Emma has been covering microbiology, molecular biology, neuroscience, health, and anything else that makes her wonder since 2016. She studied neuroscience in college, but even before causing a few mishaps and explosions in the chemistry lab, she knew she preferred a career in scientific reporting to one in scientific research.
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