Foldit is an online game in which humans try to solve one of the hardest computational problems in biology: protein folding. You don't need to know anything about biology to play the game, although a little background will help. Most of the players of Foldit are not biologists.

The official site of Foldit can be found here.

Foldit Translations Foldit Wiki is also available in: German Italian Spanish Russian

Foldit Accessibility

Contents   ( View All Pages - Foldit Wikia Index )

Downloading and Installing Foldit

Foldit can be played on:

• [Windows]
• [Macintosh OSX]
• [Linux]

Click the appropriate link to download the version for your operating system.

Install instructions

New Players

Why fold? This article explains the basics of Foldit: [The Science Behind Foldit]

The place to get started is the tutorial puzzles. Make sure that you do all of those before trying a science puzzle.

• Tutorial Puzzles
  • Tutorial Puzzles (deutsch)
  • Tutorial Puzzles (svenska)
• A very good 40 minute video by Firas Khatib (Beta_Helix), describing Foldit, the basics of the science of protein folding, scoring, CASP, and answering many other questions about protein folding: [Beta's Foldit video]

• What Next?
  • How to get started <- With pictures from an actual puzzle
  • Foldit 101 <- Helps with all of the other things you may find useful to know.
  • Puzzle Results <- Look here to see actual science puzzle summaries along with top solutions and discussions
  • FAQs <- Frequently asked questions (including Tracks & Multiple Foldit clients)

The Science

These pages describe the science of protein folding.

• Amino Acids
• Hydrophobicity
• CASP
• Structure
• Primary structure
  • Amino Acids
  • Backbone
  • Peptide Bond
  • Sidechain
• Secondary Structure
  • Disulfide Bridge
  • Glycine Hinge
  • Helix
  • Sheet
  • U-Turn
• Hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity
  • Hydrophobicity
  • Hydropathy index
• Protein Folding Theory
• Rosetta@Home
• The Big Question Page
• Biochemistry I

The Game

These pages describe the mechanics of the Foldit game.

• Puzzle Categories
• Tools
• Score
• Shortcut Keys
• Groups
• Lua Scripting
• Tools
  • Pull Mode
    • Freeze
    • Rebuild
    • Rubber Bands
    • Shake Sidechains
    • Tweak
    • Wiggle
    • The Alignment Tool
  • Structure Mode
    • Helix
    • Loop
    • Sheet
  • Mouse Functions
  • Shortcut Keys
  • Use Undo Graph To Monitor Score Accurately
  • Exploration Puzzles (the Contact Map)
  • Awards
    • Oracle

Strategy

These pages describe how to get better scores.

• Proverbs
• Strategy
  • Opening
    • Manual Rebuild
  • Middlegame
    • Local Rebuild Strategy
    • Manual Rebuild
    • Nudge
  • Endgame
    • Local Wiggle Strategy
    • Global Lock/Wiggle Strategy
    • Sad Local Wiggle Strategy
    • Endgame Video
  • Manipulation of the protein
    • Aesthetics
    • Compactness
    • Constraints
    • Glycine Hinge
    • Local wiggle
    • Mojo
    • Nudge
    • Resetting Score
    • Sheet flattening techniques
    • Sidechain flipping
    • Sidechain Position
    • Stability
    • Use Undo Graph To Monitor Score Accurately
    • U-Turn
    • Voids
• Suggested Methods (pages written by individual players)

Players

• Groups
• Foldit Legends <- LFB was here!

Research

• The Research Room
• Foldit Developer's blog

Other pages

Helping out

This is a wiki about the Foldit game that anyone can edit. Before you do edit it, however, please take a look around and determine whether or not the article you'd like to write already exists. (If it does exist, feel free to make it better!)

To write a new article, just enter the article title in the box below.

Not sure where to start?

• Find out more about the wiki on the About page.
• If you are new to wikis, check out the tutorial.
• Check out Help:Starting this wiki if you're setting up the wiki.

Adding content

• Every wiki has two list of articles that need help called "Stubs" and "Wanted Articles". Don't be shy, get in there.
• Uploading images is another really easy way to help out - see the Special:Upload page!
• You can find a list of useful templates on Category:Templates, some of which are documented on the templates project page.

Talk and more...

• Check out the community portal to see what the community is working on, to give feedback or just to say hi.