Enlist your home computer(s) to fight COVID-19. Join the Folding@Home initiative. Install their application and your computer can help similate folding.
Amino acids that, in many cases, spontaneously “fold” into compact, functional structures. Much like any other machine, it’s how a protein’s components are arranged and move that determine the protein’s function. In this case, the components are atoms. Viruses also have proteins that they use to suppress our immune systems and reproduce themselves. To help tackle coronavirus, we want to understand how these viral proteins work and how we can design therapeutics to stop them.
Here is an introduction video:
This video shows part of a simulation (run on Folding@home) of a protein where the atoms (shown as spheres) move aside, exposing a site where a drug can bind! The full opening occurs at 0:23.