BuriedBet
AlphaFold usually shows you a protein on its own — but many proteins only work when they lock onto a partner. A whole face of the surface is a hidden interface, buried when the partner arrives. BuriedBet gives you one subunit and asks you to bet which parts get buried; then it loads the real assembly and scores you against the true interface. Everything runs locally; nothing about you is collected.
This is the tool. The interface is computed in your browser from a real experimental assembly (from the RCSB PDB): the reference chain’s residues within 5 Å of any other chain. The proteins are listed below (works without JavaScript).
Loading the game… If it does not start, the full protein guide below still works.
How to play. Press Start. You see one subunit. Select a region (bar: click, or ←/→) and mark it 1 Buried at interface or 2 Stays exposed. Press R to load the assembly and score your bet against the true interface. Press Enter or Next to continue.
Why the partner matters
A protein’s interface is the patch of surface it buries against a partner. Those residues are usually conserved and often disease-linked, but you cannot see them on the lone subunit — they only make sense once the partner is there. That is the whole point of this game (misconception M06): the monomer is not the whole story. AlphaFold’s 2026 expansion into complexes is exactly about putting the partners back.
The proteins
| Protein | Assembly | Reveal (PDB) | Why it needs a partner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) P00441 | homodimer | 2C9V | Two identical subunits packed face to face; the buried interface helps hold each subunit stable, and many ALS-linked mutations sit near it. |
| Triosephosphate isomerase (TIM) P60174 | homodimer | 1HTI | An obligate homodimer — a loop from one subunit reaches over to complete the neighbour’s active site. The monomer alone is not the working enzyme. |
| Transthyretin (TTR) P02766 | tetramer | 1TTA | Works as a tetramer (a dimer of dimers) carrying thyroid hormone; amyloid disease begins when the assembly comes apart. The reveal shows the strong dimer interface. |
Methods & about
The lone subunit is AlphaFold’s monomer model (from the AlphaFold Database); the assembly is a real experimental structure fetched from the RCSB PDB. The interface is computed in your browser as the reference chain’s residues within 5 Å (heavy atom) of any other chain, using a shared mmCIF parser — the same kind of contact calculation our other structure tools use. It is a geometric contact interface, a teaching approximation, not a curated interface annotation; for tetramers (transthyretin) the deposited coordinates contain the strong dimer — the full tetramer is completed by crystal symmetry — so we reveal and score that dimer interface. Every protein note is written by hand, not generated, and science-checked. No accounts, no storage, no servers of ours.
Want to explore assemblies yourself? Open the free AlphaFold viewer or FoldCompare. Everything we make is free and non-profit; learn more on the home page.