Introduction
Drug discovery pipelines increasingly depend on screening platforms designed to identify therapeutically valuable compounds. Yet despite advances in screening technologies, the translation of these discoveries into clinical success remains limited.
A major factor is the continued reliance on cellular systems that do not adequately reflect the complexity of human tissues and disease biology.
This Masterclass explores how induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)–derived cellular models and organoid systems can provide more physiologically relevant environments for studying GPCR signaling and pharmacological responses.
The discussion will examine how these models are generated, how biosensor-based approaches can be integrated to monitor signaling pathways, and how such systems can support more translationally relevant drug discovery workflows.
Instructor
Terry Hébert has a long-standing track record in identifying molecular mechanisms that regulate the function of G protein-coupled receptors. His research has focused extensively on GPCR oligomerization, signaling complex assembly, and biased signaling.
His current work investigates the ontogeny, formation, and trafficking of GPCR-based signaling complexes in order to understand how GPCR signaling pathways are organized and integrated within cells. This research examines signaling architecture both at the cell surface and within the nucleus, providing insight into how receptor signaling networks are structured and regulated.
