Insights That Move the GPCR Field Forward

When David Hodson’s lab teamed up with chemist Johannes Broichhagen aka JB (then a young researcher newly arrived during a home DIY moment), the goal was bold and elegant: Create a photo-switchable ligand to remotely control GPCR signaling with light. This was the moment when photopharmacology felt like the future. The literature was buzzing. Labs were competing. The idea was simple — turn signaling on or off with a flash of light.