Press
For journalists, editors, podcast hosts, and conference organizers covering Fold Commons or the apps we build. Press contact: press@foldcommons.org.
Fact sheet
- Organisation: Fold Commons (non-profit; incorporation and fiscal sponsorship in progress).
- Founded: 2026.
- Mission: Build free, open browser tools that make the AlphaFold era of structural biology beautifully usable — honest about confidence, free forever, nothing collected. iPad and Mac apps follow the web.
- Funding posture: Grants (OS4LS / Renaissance Philanthropy, OMSF, NumFOCUS, NSF POSE), foundation support, and individual donations once open. No ads, no paid tiers, no data brokerage.
- License posture: Apache 2.0 for code, CC BY 4.0 for content.
Tools (live in the browser today)
35 free, zero-install browser tools are live right now — browse the full catalogue. Highlights:
- Viewer — open any AlphaFold Database structure in the browser, coloured honestly by pLDDT confidence.
- Compare, Pockets, Interfaces, Variants — one protein, one question, all client-side.
- FoldLens Junior — K-12 sibling for ages 9–14, NGSS-aligned, COPPA-safe by design.
- ResearchAtlas and reading tools over the Fold Commons research archive, Nobel structures, and CASP.
Native apps (following the web)
The native FoldLens app for iPad and Mac wraps the same tools and adds what a browser cannot do — Files, the Share Sheet, an offline library, Spotlight, and on-device Apple Intelligence residue explanations. It is in internal testing; v1.0 target 2027 Q2. Native apps never gate the web.
Portfolio apps share FoldKit, an open-source Swift library housing the AlphaFold Database client, Metal rendering pipeline, and reusable SwiftUI chrome.
Peer ecosystem
AlphaFold Database (EMBL-EBI + Google DeepMind), OpenFold Consortium, Mol*, RCSB PDB, EMBL-EBI training, Boltz consortium, BioViewer, CellWalk. We sit alongside, not in competition.
Talking points
- The AlphaFold Database holds 241 million predicted protein structures — the largest scientific public resource of its kind, recognized by the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
- iPad-first access doesn't exist yet. The AFDB web app is excellent on desktop, functional on iPad. We build the consumption layer Apple platforms deserve.
- Honest confidence display. Every prediction has a per-residue confidence number (pLDDT). FoldLens renders low-confidence regions at reduced opacity by default — matching the AFDB website's honesty pattern. Misleading software pretends predictions are measurements.
- On-device Apple Intelligence. Residue Q&A runs entirely on the iPad via FoundationModels. Nothing leaves the device.
- Non-profit. Free forever. Open source. No paid tiers, no ads, no cookies, no tracking, no in-app purchases. We count page views in aggregate with Cloudflare Web Analytics, and never on our pages for ages 9–14. This isn't a marketing posture — it's encoded in the org's foundational documents (ADR-002).
Press kit assets
Coming when v1.0 nears launch:
- App icon (1024×1024 PNG) + alternate sizes.
- App screenshots (iPad Pro 13", iPad Pro 11", iPhone 16 Pro Max, Mac).
- 30-second preview video.
- Brand assets (Fold Commons wordmark, lockup, folded-ribbon glyph) in SVG.
- Founder photo + bio.
- One-page printable summary.
For a specific request before launch, email press@foldcommons.org.
Quotable lines
Available for direct quotation:
- "The AlphaFold era, beautifully."
- "Browse 241 million predicted proteins on iPad."
- "Honest about confidence. Free forever."
- "Apple Intelligence meets the AlphaFold Database."
- "Built by a non-profit. Run by no one."
Boilerplate
Fold Commons is a non-profit that builds free, open browser tools for the AlphaFold era of structural biology — honest about confidence, free forever, nothing collected. iPad and Mac apps follow the web. Its tools bring the AlphaFold Database — the resource recognized by the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry — to any browser with honest pLDDT confidence colouring. Fold Commons sits alongside the open structural-biology ecosystem (Mol*, OpenFold, RCSB PDB, EMBL-EBI) as a peer, not a competitor. The organisation is funded by grants and individual donors; it does not sell user data, run ads, or charge for its tools. foldcommons.org.