Live data from Hacker News

Coronavirus Spike Protein Binder Design

fold.it

61–70 of 85 posts

Re: Coronavirus Spike Protein Binder Design

#61
post #13
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't blood pretty good at this?

I'm not a biologist but I suppose that not every kind of protein enters any kind of cell.

Where the virus can go the antiviral can go too (because it's much smaller, only targeting a smaller protein spike on the surface of the viral envelope).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus#/media/File:3D_med... [the N protein is supposedly the nucleocapsid, which is basically/maybe another envelope around the RNA]

Re: Coronavirus Spike Protein Binder Design

#62
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I happened to work in the lab at the University of Washington that helped maintain the game as an undergrad. Here's a published scientific article about the use of Foldit for science: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature09304 (I'm not disagreeing that the website is badly designed.)

Thanks. I’d quibble about the design word... the design is ok; it’s the wording that is lacking. Or some clear thinking. I mean for all the effort they are spending on this, it would take like one paragraph or less to clear things up. It could be fixed with five minutes of effort.

Design encompasses everything that people interact with, so words are part of design. In fact there's a whole discipline called "User Experience Writing".

Re: Coronavirus Spike Protein Binder Design

#63
post #59
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deliver mRNA, or a protein?

both or either dependent on the therapeutic strategy. this is also something that is not limited to corona virus, this is the basis of a recombinant vaccine that can be adjusted for any antigen.

Cool. I was thinking about immunotherapy like IL proteins.. sometimes they are injected and sometimes infused, I don't know why.

Re: Coronavirus Spike Protein Binder Design

#64
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. I’d quibble about the design word... the design is ok; it’s the wording that is lacking. Or some clear thinking. I mean for all the effort they are spending on this, it would take like one paragraph or less to clear things up. It could be fixed with five minutes of effort.

Design encompasses everything that people interact with, so words are part of design. In fact there's a whole discipline called "User Experience Writing".

Sure, no argument there, although you’re being a bit over picky about semantics (even more than I was!). But my point stands that this could be fixed with a single paragraph of text.

Re: Coronavirus Spike Protein Binder Design

#65
post #63
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

both or either dependent on the therapeutic strategy. this is also something that is not limited to corona virus, this is the basis of a recombinant vaccine that can be adjusted for any antigen.

Cool. I was thinking about immunotherapy like IL proteins.. sometimes they are injected and sometimes infused, I don't know why.

it depends on the targets distribution, is it diffuse in the body or is it localized to a certain tissue type.

Re: Coronavirus Spike Protein Binder Design

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a big wall of text, with some nice ideas about how efficient markets are the solution to the problem, but you fail to realize that the US has a sub-par medical system (life expectancy is lagging quite far from most European countries) while being twice as costly as the OECD mean per capita.

I understand why people use this talking point. It's easy to say and the reasons why it's nonsense involve details. You can't compare life expectancy without accounting for cultural or geographic differences. The US has a higher rate of motor vehicle fatalities (as a result of driving more), more suicides and drug overdoses etc. These bring down life expectancy because they disproportionately impact the young. The US…

That's amazing how you seem to live in an happy imaginary world where everything is fine. There's not much to discuss when you're just making pretty stories to convince yourself. Good day.

Re: Coronavirus Spike Protein Binder Design

#68
post #37

Strange site. The heading implies that they are attempting to design things that help science, but if you drill in to the pages for "new to fold.it" and FAQ, it never actually says that any of the results are used by anyone. Instead it says that it's all a game and the only science goal is to prove that humans are capable (just like computers) of doing this. I wonder if this is really all it is, or if the writers of…

Discussed in 2014: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8815917

Re: Coronavirus Spike Protein Binder Design

#69
post #2

I know it's fun, and I think participative science is such a huge shift in paradigm … But considering the global impact of coronavirus, I'm wondering if there shouldn't be a better way to fund this type of endeavor. Any cloud provider willing to donate compute to researchers?

fold.it is a lot more about the fact that humans still are a lot better at exploring complex spaces than computers. Analysis of results has shown players reaching semi-global minima in folding space much quicker than computers and designing novel folds that express and crystallize that have not been seen in nature before (which means they can explore more space than starting from known templates). Researchers are try…

Thanks for the context, I remember now, I had completely missed this part. Your comment should be at the top of the thread.

Re: Coronavirus Spike Protein Binder Design

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a big wall of text, with some nice ideas about how efficient markets are the solution to the problem, but you fail to realize that the US has a sub-par medical system (life expectancy is lagging quite far from most European countries) while being twice as costly as the OECD mean per capita.

I understand why people use this talking point. It's easy to say and the reasons why it's nonsense involve details. You can't compare life expectancy without accounting for cultural or geographic differences. The US has a higher rate of motor vehicle fatalities (as a result of driving more), more suicides and drug overdoses etc. These bring down life expectancy because they disproportionately impact the young. The US…

> The outcomes for US patients with health insurance are better than they are just about anywhere.

This is interesting, can you provide a source for this?

Agreed on all other counts.

Post reply on HN