<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Developing new tools to uncover GPCR signaling patterns with Remi Janicot About Remi Janicot I was born in Paris (France) and grew up in Europe until I was 18. After graduating high school, I moved to America to pursue my passion for basketball while continuing high level studies. I played collegiate basketball and earned my bachelor’s at Ursinus College, a small school around Philadelphia where I graduated from in 2018. After that, I worked at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore as a research assistant investigating mechanisms and treatments for pediatric epilepsy. With my background in neuroscience, the lab of Dr. Mikel Garcia-Marcos seemed like a good fit as GPCRs are integral to the functioning of the nervous system (and much more). My particular projects revolve around developing new tools to study GPCR activity in ways that were not previously possible. This research has led to a first-author Cell article on the development of a new biosensor platform called ONE-GO biosensors. Overall, the lab works on diverse models and diseases, and has developed a wide array of tools to dissect GPCR/G protein signaling which I would be happy to discuss. Remi Janicot on the web Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Dr. Gregory Tall About Dr. Gregory Tall " Dr. Gregory Tall earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from U.T. Southwestern Medical Center with Bruce Horazdovsky, Ph.D. They worked on the interactome of yeast and mammalian Rab5 homologs including identification of Rab5 GEFs. In 2000, Dr. Tall moved upstairs to conduct his postdoctoral work on heterotrimeric G proteins and the novel interactor, Ric-8 with Alfred Gilman, M.D. Ph.D. In 2007, Dr. Tall joined the faculty in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of Rochester Medical Center, there establishing his lab and major research directions. Dr. Tall moved to the University of Michigan in 2016 as an Associate Professor of Pharmacology and is a current active member of the department. The current goals of the Tall lab are to understand the basic mechanism by which Ric-8 proteins fold all heterotrimeric G protein alpha subunits, to exploit a Ric-8-based technology to purify recombinant G proteins and to use the G proteins in assays to explore the mechanisms of action of the 33-member adhesion GPCR family or Family B2 GPCRs. We found that adhesion GPCRs are activated by a tethered peptide agonist mechanism that differed from the common example known at the time, protease activated receptors (PARs). PARs have an N-terminal leader sequence that is clipped by exogenous proteases to reveal a new N-terminus that serves as the tethered agonist. Adhesion GPCRs pre-cleave themselves and the two resultant fragments of the receptor remain together to conceal the tethered peptide agonist. Mechanical dissociation of the two fragments aided by protein binding ligands and cell movement serves to decrypt the tethered agonist for binding to its orthosteric site. Our current goals are to explore this mechanism in detail and to understand how it may happen for the 33 adhesion GPCRs in complex physiological contexts…one being our discovery that GPR56 is the platelet receptor that senses collagen and shear force to initiate the platelet activation program. Dr. Tall has been continuously funded by the NIH since receiving an early RO1 award at Rochester. He has continued funding at Michigan through the MIRA R35 program. Dr. Tall has presented his work at 59 invited seminars including national and international meetings and academic departmental seminars. " Dr. Gregory Tall on the web The Tall Lab University of Michigan Google Scholar Twitter Dr. GPCR Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Dr. Raul Gainetdinov About Dr. Raul Gainetdinov Raul R. Gainetdinov is the Institute of Translational Biomedicine Director at Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU), Russia. Before SPBU, Raul R. Gainetdinov was a Senior Researcher in the Department of Neuroscience and Brain Technologies at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genova, Italy (2008-2016) and an Associate Research Professor in the Department of Cell Biology at Duke University in North Carolina, USA (1996-2008). From 2013-2018, he was also a Professor at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), Moscow. Before joining the Department of Cell Biology in 1996 as a postdoc and becoming faculty at Duke in 2000, he researched at the Institute of Pharmacology Russian Academy of Medical Sciences in Moscow (1988-1996). He received a Ph.D. in pharmacology in 1992 from the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and an M.D. in 1988 from the Second Moscow Medical Institute, Moscow, Russia. Since 2013, he has been elected Chair of the subcommittee for the Dopamine receptors of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology Committee on Receptor Nomenclature and Drug Classification (NC-IUPHAR). As of August 2022, he has over 270 publications in scientific journals (including Science, Nature, Cell, and PNAS) and co-authored 13 patents. His papers were cited over 28,000 times (H-index – 81, ISI Web of Science). In 2018-2020, Raul R. Gainetdinov was included in the Web of Science (WOS) Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) list, representing the top 0.1% of scientists worldwide. Dr. Raul Gainetdinov on the web Saint-Petersburg State University Wikipedia Google Scholar Researchgate Google Dr. GPCR Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

Fast-track your biotech investments with VC Insights. Access expert guidance, vetted CROs, and data-driven strategies to invest smarter and move faster in GPCR drug discovery. Home About Services News Get in Touch Welcome VC Insights Fast Track Your Next Biotech Bet Get decision-grade data, vetted CROs, and expert guidance—so you move fast and invest smarter. I help you avoid costly delays, choose the right experiments, and unlock clear timelines that drive confident investment. Fast Track My Discovery The wrong CRO—or wrong experiments—can burn months and millions You're not here to fund academic detours. You're backing science that needs to move fast. But too often I hear: “We thought the experiments made sense—until the data didn’t help us decide.” “The CRO promised timelines they couldn’t hit.” “The team’s updates sound polished, but we can’t tell if they’re on track.” If you’ve said any of those, you’re not alone. That's where I come in : to pressure-test the science, align the strategy, and make sure every experiment earns its place. How I Drive Value Prioritize the Right Experiments Avoid noise. I help identify the experiments that truly matter—aligned to your milestones and inflection points. Translate project strategy into clear decision-driving assays Eliminate “nice to have” tests that stall timelines without payoff Match experiments to the specific phase and risk tolerance of the asset De-risk Your CRO Strategy I evaluate, select, and manage CROs that are fit-for-purpose—saving you time, cost, and rework. Audit and compare CRO options based on speed, quality, and fit Clarify deliverables and oversight to prevent rework and misfires Serve as a scientific bridge between VC, team, and CRO Move With Clarity and Speed Every week counts. I bring structure, decision frameworks, and momentum so your team stays on track. Build plans aligned to go/no-go moments, not busywork Drive regular check-ins that produce clear, actionable updates Anticipate delays and adapt quickly with contingency-ready paths " Yamina brings scientific clarity, leadership, and precision execution to complex pharmacological programs. I’ve worked with her on several discovery programs; in fragmented programs, she brought clarity and decision points that produced much better candidate progression. I am always delighted to work with Yamina as it always leads to an overall better and harmonious discovery program." - Terry Kenakin, PhD - UNC Chappel Hill Frequently Asked Questions 01 How quickly can you get started? I begin with a 30-minute call to understand your goals. From there, I deliver a roadmap or assessment within 1–2 weeks. 02 Do you only work post-investment? No—many VCs engage me before investing to assess targets, pressure-test science, or evaluate CRO readiness. 03 What if we already have a team? Perfect. I plug in as a strategic partner—complementing internal talent to bring execution clarity and scientific rigor. Let's turn complexity into confidence—with the data you need to move forward. Chat about My Discovery Send me a message First name* Last name Company name* Email* How Can I Help?* Send Message or Book My Call Menu Home Services About Ready to collaborate? Let’s talk about how I support GPCR discovery, pharmacology strategy, and cross-functional execution across biotech, VC, and CRO teams. Get in touch Connect LinkedIn Podcast Dr. GPCR Calendly ©2023-2025 All rights reserved by FindYooour, LLC & Dr. GPCR Corp Proudly created with Wix.com

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Self-Learning, Collaboration, and Delegation in Science with Dr. Badr Sokrat About Dr. Badr Sokrat " After completing my undergraduate studies with an internship in the laboratory of Dr. Christian Baron studying bacterial secretion systems, I joined the molecular pharmacology laboratory of Dr. Michel Bouvier at the University of Montreal. There, I completed a PhD in biochemistry exploring the non-canonical functions and possible novel mechanisms of regulation of β-arrestin following GPCR activation. Among other projects, I studied the role of β-arrestin in G protein trafficking, the impact of GPCR ubiquitination on signaling and β-arrestin functions, and the characterization of novel β-arrestin interactors. At the end of 2023, I joined the research group of Dr. Nigel Bunnett at the NYU Pain Research Center as a postdoctoral researcher. My current research focuses on investigating GPCR signaling and trafficking in the context of inflammation and chronic pain. I am particularly interested in spatial signaling bias or how GPCRs can redistribute to different subcellular compartments to trigger distinct signaling events. " Dr. Badr Sokrat on the web PubMed ResearchGate LinkedIn Dr. GPCR AI Summary AI-generated content may be inaccurate or misleading. Always check for accuracy. Quick Recap Yamina and Badr discussed their backgrounds in science, their experiences in education, and the challenges of competition and mental health in their home province of Quebec. They also discussed Badr's career trajectory, the importance of self-learning, collaboration, and delegation in scientific research, and the need for a well-organized lab manager in their global scientific team. Lastly, they highlighted the challenges scientists face in academia and industry, the importance of projection and careful communication, and the potential for future collaboration. Next Steps Badr will continue focusing his research on GPCRs involved in pain and inflammation during his postdoc at NYU. Yamina and Badr will create a virtual genealogical tree mapping the connections between researchers in the GPCR field. Yamina will continue to develop and manage the Dr. GPCR University podcast, focusing on collaboration and learning opportunities for the GPCR community. Yamina will balance her scientific work with personal interests and activities to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Summary Podcast Recording and Science Backgrounds Yamina and Badr discussed recording their podcast with Samary Eye, who made a humorous error in transcribing "Edmond" as "agendie". They then shared their backgrounds and interests in science, with Badr recounting his journey from struggling with math in an engineering physics degree to excelling in biology and obtaining a Master’s degree in biochemistry. Badr worked in various science labs, including Dr. Christian Badr’s and Dr. Philip Woozab’s, focusing on bacterial secretion systems, GPCRs, and bioinformatics. Yamina, who also attended the University of Montreal, confirmed her interest in science and mentioned their shared passion for the subject. Education, Competition, and Mental Health Discussion Badr and Yamina shared their experiences about their education, with Yamina sharing her struggles during her first trimester in college and her eventual success due to the support of a theater group and a good teacher. They both discussed the intense competition in their home province, Quebec, and its impact on students' mental health and university admission prospects. They also talked about the negative aspects of this competition, such as students putting others down, and how it can be toxic. Lastly, Badr shared his transition into the field of GPCRs.. Badr recounted Badr's Journey, Multiplexing Assays, and Collaboration Badr shared his learning process and early tasks at Michelle’s lab, which involved creating stable cell lines and identifying potential protein interactions. He described a significant moment when he confirmed a previously uncertain interaction, underscoring the importance of confidence and motivation in scientific discoveries. Yamina emphasized the potential of multiplexing assays in expanding the scope of scientific exploration and finding new protein interactions. They also discussed the concept of serendipity in scientific research, illustrating with examples of Kathleen Curran and her father. Lastly, they concurred on the collaborative nature of the scientific community, where scientists build upon each other's work. Badr's Postdoc Plans and GPCR Research Yamina and Badr discussed Badr’s career trajectory and his decision to pursue a postdoc abroad after his PhD. Badr shared his passion for GPCR signalling and regulation, specifically in the context of pain and inflammation, and how his PhD research on non-canonical GPCR roles laid the foundation for his postdoc work. He also explained his strategy for finding a suitable postdoc lab, which involved reaching out to labs whose recent research aligned with his interests. Lastly, Badr emphasized the importance of choosing a city one would like to live in for several years when deciding on a postdoc position. Badr’s Journey to Overcoming Confidence Fluctuations Badr shared his journey of overcoming fluctuating confidence levels during his PhD journey, emphasizing the importance of viewing failures as valuable learning opportunities. He highlighted that he had to regain his confidence after a period of three failed experiments. Yamina expressed interest in understanding how Badr’s experiences influenced his current role, and Badr stressed the need for individuals to develop challenges outside of their work environment to foster greater confidence. Additionally, they both agreed on the importance of mentorship in building confidence, with Yamina sharing her positive experience of being advised by her supervisor, Nikolaos. Self-Learning, Collaboration, and Delegation in Science Badr and Yamina discussed the importance of self-learning and scientific confidence in managing projects and conducting experiments. They highlighted the significance of collaboration and delegation in scientific research, noting that knowing when to ask for help and when to delegate tasks can lead to more efficient and successful results. Yamina shared her experiences of starting a project independently and then delegating tasks, while Badr shared his plans for his current project, which involved learning certain techniques himself and delegating others to colleagues. They both agreed on the value of these strategies. Yamina’s Podcast Journey and Career Advice Yamina discussed how her podcast on chemokine ligands led to new collaborations and published work. She emphasized preparation and understanding guests’ backgrounds for engaging interviews. Yamina shared her experiences at Rockefeller, where she studied chemical receptors. She aims for Dr. GPCR to serve as a global hub for the GPCR community. Badr expressed interest in broadening his skills beyond the lab, such as project management and effective communication. Yamina advised him to consider career options after his postdoc and adapt to different systems. She highlighted the importance of learning behind-the-scenes skills and staying informed through resources like GPCR news. Improving Scientific Communication and Support Yamina and Badr discussed the need for a well-organized lab manager to facilitate communication within their global scientific team and ensure scientists could focus on their research. They identified the challenges scientists, particularly students and researchers, face, such as imposter syndrome, constant pressure from administrative tasks, and difficulties in maintaining a work-life balance. Yamina and Badr agreed on the importance of individuals struggling with imposter syndrome learning to set aside their fears and doubts to move forward. They also highlighted the benefits of maintaining a supportive network and engaging in non-lab activities for mental processing and relaxation. Academia and Industry Strategies Discussed Yamina and Badr discussed the challenges and strategies of a scientist in academia and industry. Yamina highlighted the need to project a certain presence and balance one’s actions against others in the field. She also mentioned the importance of careful communication, especially when working with a boss who has a different approach. Badr agreed to reach out for a future collaboration, and they discussed the possibility of meeting in Boston. Yamina committed to sending her contact details to Badr. Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

Lin and Ball of GeneTex on GPCR antibody characterization, recombinant monoclonals, five-pillar validation, and the LGR5 challenge. << Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Lin and Ball: GPCR Antibody Characterization and the Recombinant Shift Reliable antibodies are not a convenience in GPCR research - they are the foundation on which every expression and localization experiment rests. Yet the GPCR field has lived with a quiet, persistent problem: antibodies that pass catalog-level QC, ship to a lab, and fail in the only system that matters. This conversation examines that problem from the inside. Chia-Yi Lin and Alexander Ball, both scientists-turned-industry professionals at GeneTex, trace how the commercial antibody landscape has shifted over the past decade - away from polyclonal and hybridoma-based production toward recombinant monoclonal antibodies built around rigorous five-pillar characterization. The conversation covers why GPCR targets are especially difficult to immunize against, how receptor family homology between targets like CXCR1 and CXCR2 makes immunogen selection a critical and underappreciated decision point, and what it actually looks like to validate an antibody against a target as stubborn as LGR5. For Ball, the stakes became concrete years before GeneTex - in a research lab where the reliability of a single antibody determined whether an experiment could move forward at all. That experience runs through this entire conversation. ABOUT THE GUESTS Alexander Ball is a senior scientist at GeneTex who joined the company in 2012 after training in medicine at the University of Southern California and spending years at the research bench, where he worked directly with antibody production and encountered firsthand the variability inherent in polyclonal reagents. At GeneTex, he oversees target selection, QA review, and scientific outreach, and serves as the direct point of contact for GPCR researchers requesting free antibody samples through the Dr. GPCR ecosystem. His dual perspective - having depended on antibodies as a bench scientist and now helping produce them - shapes how GeneTex approaches community collaboration for the GPCR field. Chia-Yi Lin is the head of international sales, marketing, technical support, and logistics at GeneTex International in Taiwan, which she joined in 2016 after completing a PhD in stem cell biology at the University of Edinburgh and a postdoctoral fellowship. Her own experience with GPCR antibody failures during knockout mouse experiments - purchasing commercial antibodies that produced signal where none should exist - gave her an early, direct understanding of what the field was missing. She now leads the programs connecting GeneTex's growing catalog of recombinant GPCR antibodies with the researchers best positioned to characterize them. SCIENTIFIC THEMES OF THE CONVERSATION The GPCR antibody reliability problem - how it developed, why it persists, and what systematic characterization requires Immunogen selection as the critical upstream decision in GPCR antibody development The five-pillar approach to antibody characterization applied to notoriously difficult receptor targets Recombinant monoclonal antibodies as the structural solution to batch variability and reproducibility Researcher-company collaboration as an active ingredient in antibody quality - not a support function Career transitions from bench science to the reagent industry, and what that crossing of worlds makes visible KEY INSIGHTS FROM THE CONVERSATION 1. GPCR Family Homology Makes Immunogen Selection the Deciding Variable Before a single rabbit is immunized, the choice of immunogen has already determined whether a GPCR antibody can succeed. Chemokine receptors like CXCR1 and CXCR2 share over 75% sequence identity - use the wrong peptide region and the resulting antibody is cross-reactive before it leaves production. Ball describes this as the point where most GPCR antibody programs are already lost, long before any downstream characterization begins. 2. LGR5 Became GeneTex's Reckoning with the GPCR Target Class LGR5 - a receptor critical to adult stem cell maintenance in intestinal crypts and implicated in several malignancies - was the target that made the difficulty of GPCR antibody development concrete for GeneTex. Ball recounts his company's president going pale when the subject came up: every commercial antibody they tested failed to meet expectations, and their own early attempts were no more reliable. Years later, GeneTex now has both polyclonal and recombinant monoclonal options for LGR5 - but the process to get there reshaped how the company approaches the entire GPCR category. 3. "Characterized" Is More Honest Than "Validated" - and the Difference Matters The word "validated" implies a finished state that no antibody ever truly reaches. Ball and Lin argue that "characterized" is the more accurate frame - an antibody has been tested in specific applications, against specific cell lines, using specific controls, and those results are known. What is not shown on a data sheet is also information: the absence of a Western blot entry does not mean the experiment was never run. Researchers who understand this read data sheets differently, and ask better questions before purchasing. 4. A Researcher at SFN, a Knockout Mouse, and No Working Antibodies Lin's first antibody conference was SFN in 2018. A researcher approached the GeneTex booth and described his situation: he had knockout mice for the mu opioid receptor, purchased multiple commercial antibodies, and found that several of them produced signal in the knockout - the clearest possible evidence of non-specificity. GeneTex had nothing for that target at the time. But the encounter crystallized the problem Lin had been reading about abstractly: the GPCR research community was spending real time and money on reagents that were quietly producing false results, with no reliable way to know before the experiment was run. 5. Recombinant Monoclonals Solve the Problem Polyclonals Were Never Designed to Solve Polyclonal antibodies are inherently variable: each new production batch is a different rabbit, a different immune response, a different mixture of binding clones. For most targets, that variability is manageable. For GPCRs - which are difficult to express, difficult to immunize against, and require extensive characterization work to pass validation - that variability means that every batch can undo what the previous one demonstrated. Recombinant monoclonal antibodies eliminate this uncertainty: the sequence is defined, stored in a plasmid, and reproducible at any scale, indefinitely. As Ball puts it, the antibody does not run out because a rabbit does. 6. The Most Expensive Thing a Lab Can Waste Is Not Money Ball's most direct recommendation to researchers is to contact the company before buying - not after the experiment fails. The cost of starting with a reagent that cannot do what a project requires is not measured in catalog prices but in the time of students, postdocs, and scientists who run months of experiments before the antibody itself is questioned. GeneTex's approach to the GPCR community - offering free samples for testing in researcher-owned systems - is a direct response to this: the company needs external expert feedback, and the researcher needs a reagent that actually works. 7. What Scientists Who Cross Into Industry Learn That Those at the Bench Cannot Both Ball and Lin arrived at GeneTex from active research positions, and both describe a shift in how they understood antibodies only after making that transition. At the bench, an antibody is a tool you trust or distrust based on results. Inside a company, you understand the full range of decisions - immunogen design, host selection, production format, QC protocol - that determine what a researcher receives. Ball is direct about this: the full gestalt of the antibody world is not visible from the bench, and that gap in understanding contributes to the antibody problems researchers encounter without knowing why. EPISODE TIMELINE Timestamps are AI-generated based on the provided transcript and may vary slightly from the final edited video. Use timestamps as a navigational guide. 00:00 Sponsor message and host intro 00:58 Introducing Lin and Ball - roles and context at GeneTex 03:25 GeneTex history - from a Texas research lab to a global antibody company 05:49 The antibody reproducibility crisis and how GeneTex responded 09:25 Lin's path from stem cell biology PhD to leading antibody characterization programs 12:20 Ball's path from medical school to the research bench to GeneTex 14:38 The scientists who founded GeneTex and the scientific problems that shaped the company 16:49 LGR5 - the GPCR that exposed how deep the antibody quality problem runs 19:21 A researcher walks up at SFN with knockout mice and no working antibodies 21:49 What researchers get wrong with antibody selection - and what to ask instead 25:00 Five-pillar characterization in practice - KO lines, comparable antibodies, GPCR arrays 30:19 Recombinant monoclonals vs. polyclonals - what changes for GPCR research 36:55 If not antibodies - Ball and Lin on the power of scientific communication 39:40 The GPCR therapeutic market and what remains untapped SELECTED QUOTES "Making antibodies, of course, needs some technique. But to verify them - to characterize them, to validate them - it actually takes more effort. And that has to be based on science." Chia-Yi Lin "If you don't choose the immunogen properly, you're already messed up. You're doomed before you even shoot a rabbit." Alexander Ball "You really don't understand antibodies until you're in the industry. I think people at the bench haven't had that experience. You really get it once you're actually in the industry." Alexander Ball "It's defined by the primary sequence. It's there. It's in a plasmid. It's not going away. It's inexhaustible." Alexander Ball, on recombinant monoclonal antibodies Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Murat Tunaboylu & Ben Holland About Murat Tunaboylu "Murat Tunaboylu, Antiverse's CEO, has a software engineering and bioinformatics background. Mid-career, he has worked in finance and developed high-frequency trading systems. After switching to biotech, Murat has built cell imaging software and lab robots to accelerate cancer research and automated Thermo Fisher Scientific’s gene synthesis workflows. He has co-founded consultancy and biotech companies Svarlight and Antiverse. His current focus is to realise Antiverse’s mission: engineering the future of drug discovery." Murat Tunaboylu on the web Antiverse DSV Future of Drug Discovery Podcast Twist Bioscience LinkedIn Twitter Dr. GPCR About Ben Holland "Ben gained his masters in Engineering Science from Oxford, taking a specialisation in information engineering. Following this, he joined an early-stage medical device start-up and in 5 years was responsible for project R&D and managing a focused development team, pursued international strategic partnerships, managed IP matters, helped establish a manufacturing line in Malaysia and is named as inventor on several patents. He then returned to information engineering and has been working in machine learning for nearly 10 years, applying it to antibody generation, analysis, and property prediction since 2017" Ben Holland on the web Antiverse The Antibody Society YT LinkedIn Twitter Dr. GPCR Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Dr. Jean Martin Beaulieu About Dr. Jean Martin Beaulieu Dr. Beaulieu received a Ph.D. in Neurological Sciences from McGill University and completed his post-doctoral training at Duke University. Prior to his recruitment Dr. Beaulieu was an associate professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier2) in the Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Laval University. Dr. Beaulieu’s research is aimed at understanding how cellular and molecular mechanisms regulated by psychoactive drugs intersect with genetic risk factors for mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder. Dr. Beaulieu has pioneered work establishing a role for Beta-arrestin signaling in the brain in vivo and has established its importance in D2 dopamine receptors (D2R) functions. These receptors belong to the super-family of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR), the major molecular target for drug development. In particular, D2R is the main pharmacological target of antipsychotic drugs prescribed for schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. Work by the Beaulieu Lab has demonstrated that mood stabilizer drugs (e.g. lithium) used for bipolar disorder therapy target signaling mechanisms regulated by dopamine receptors, thus providing a framework to understand how different drug classes can engage overlapping cellular mechanisms to exert their action. The Beaulieu group is presently investigating how cell surface express proteins can act as allosteric modulators of D2R signaling and explores the potential usefulness of beta-arrestins for the development of new pharmaceutical agents. Translational validation is important to validate findings obtained from experimental models research and bridge the gap between bench and bedside. Working in collaboration with geneticists, the Beaulieu-Lab has identified interactions between cellular mechanisms engaged by D2R and psychiatric drugs with genetic risk factors implicated in schizophrenia by large whole-genome association studies (GWAS) in humans. These investigations have led to the identification of an RNA binding protein (FXR1P) involved in the regulation of protein synthesis as a potential downstream effector of the action of mood stabilizers and other psychoactive drugs. In addition to basic research, the Beaulieu group is also actively implicated in translational research and industry collaboration to develop new drugs and drug development technology. Dr. Jean Martin Beaulieu on the web University of Toronto Google Scholar LinkedIn ResearchGate Dr. GPCR Ecosystem Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

Dr. Amynah Pradhan on why mu opioids worsen migraine, why delta agonists may relieve it, and how chronic disease states rewrite drug discovery. << Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Amynah Pradhan: The Delta Opioid Receptor and the Migraine Paradox Chronic migraine sits at a peculiar crossroads in opioid pharmacology: sustained mu opioid receptor activation is a well-documented driver of medication-overuse headache, while preclinical evidence points to delta opioid receptor agonism as a candidate to relieve the same disorder. Dr. Amynah Pradhan's lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago has spent years pulling apart that asymmetry — combining mouse models of chronic migraine, cortical spreading depression, and opioid-induced hyperalgesia with peptidomic screens and conditional genetics to ask where the two receptors diverge anatomically, pharmacologically, and in the chronic disease state. The work sits inside a larger argument Dr. Pradhan returns to often: that organisms in chronic pain are fundamentally different biological systems than naïve ones, and that drug discovery fails when it pretends otherwise. For her, this line of work is also personal — the delta opioid receptor has been her scientific focus for nearly two decades, through failed clinical trials in depression and pain, and migraine may finally be where it finds a clinical home. About the Guest Dr. Amynah Pradhan is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where her lab studies opioid receptor biology in the context of headache disorders, chronic pain, and their comorbid emotional states. She trained in pharmacology at McGill University with Paul Clarke and completed postdoctoral work at AstraZeneca, with Brigitte Kieffer in Strasbourg, and with Chris Evans at UCLA. Her research integrates behavioral pharmacology, ligand-directed signaling, and mouse models of migraine, and has become central to the small community of basic pharmacologists working inside the headache field. Scientific Themes of the Conversation The mu/delta asymmetry in migraine — why two receptors in the same family produce opposite clinical outcomes Chronic disease states as fundamentally altered biological systems — and what that means for drug discovery Ligand-directed signaling and receptor trafficking — how internalization shapes tolerance and adverse effects The emotional circuitry of chronic pain — and the kappa opioid / dynorphin link The unfinished GPCR frontier — PACAP, CGRP, and the persistent antibody problem Career mobility through collaboration — how a headache neurologist redirected two decades of work Key Insights from the Conversation The yin-yang that organizes the lab. Mu opioid agonists, in chronic use, exacerbate migraine and drive medication-overuse headache. Delta opioid agonists appear to relieve the same symptoms — pain, negative affect, and aura-related signs in preclinical models. Dr. Pradhan treats the contrast not as a side story but as the organizing question of her work. Chronic states are not scaled-up acute states. One of Dr. Pradhan's recurring arguments is that the organism in a chronic disease state is fundamentally altered, and that drug candidates fail in clinical trials partly because they are validated in naïve animals that do not resemble the patients they will eventually treat. Internalization is a design choice, not a side effect. Earlier work in her career showed that high-internalizing delta agonists drive receptor downregulation and tolerance, while low-internalizing agonists uncouple the receptor from ion channels without losing it. The ideal delta agonist, by her account, would be non-internalizing, brain-penetrant, long-half-life, and directed at forebrain circuits where emotional salience of pain lives. Delta agonists may finally have a disease. After failed trials in depression and pain, Dr. Pradhan argues that migraine — with its emotional comorbidity, its anatomical overlap with delta receptor expression, and its distinctive pain mechanisms — may be the clinical home the compound class has been looking for. The conviction is quiet but deeply held. The antibody problem is keeping a field from basic answers. Her "bugaboo": we still do not know reliably where many GPCRs live — which cell type, which compartment, surface versus intracellular — because antibodies for the family are widely unreliable. For a pharmacologist, the resolution problem sits upstream of every other question. A single collaboration can redirect a career. Her move from pure opioid pharmacology into migraine came from sharing a building with neurologist Andrew Charles at UCLA. She treats this as a generalizable lesson for junior scientists: openness to collaboration is not decorative — it is how fields get rewired. The invisible labor of being the only one in the room. Toward the end of the conversation, Dr. Pradhan turns to the structural weight carried by women and scientists of color in academia — the cumulative load of committee service, mentorship, and representation — and argues that real support requires institutions to account for it, not just request it. Episode Timeline Timestamps were generated using AI for readability. 00:00 Introduction 01:13 From McGill to migraine — a path through four labs 04:19 Why mu worsens migraine and delta relieves it 09:27 What chronic dosing does to the receptor — tolerance, internalization, downregulation 14:17 Designing the delta agonist she wants 17:30 The emotional circuitry of chronic pain — and the kappa link 22:22 CGRP, PACAP, and why GPCR drug discovery is not out of runway 28:54 Biased ligands after the hype cooled 34:08 How you measure migraine in a mouse 40:44 Three aha moments — and why delta agonists may finally have a home 43:28 The hidden cost of being the only one in the room 57:05 What the pandemic did to a mouse colony Selected Quotes "The delta opioid receptor is my baby. I've been working on it for almost 20 years under lots of different contexts." "The organism is fundamentally altered in a chronic disease state. They're not in the same state as they were if they were naïve. Patients didn't come to the doctor to look for drugs because they were feeling fine." "Every person I know who studies G-protein coupled receptors will tell you — the antibodies suck. We're still arguing about where the receptor is. What cell type it's on. Is it on the cell surface? Is it inside the cell? The fact that we can't say that is kind of crazy to me." "Maybe the disease state where delta ligands would really be effective would be in headache disorders — in migraines specifically. Maybe this is where it all comes together." About this episode In this episode of the Dr. GPCR podcast , we meet with Dr. Amynah Pradhan. She is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Amynah did her undergrad research measuring IP3 in airway smooth muscle cells and completed a Ph.D. at McGill University in Canada with Dr. Paul Clarck , where she studied opioid receptors. Her next career step took her to AstraZeneca as a postdoctoral trainee, where she studied animal models of pain and sensory neuron sensitive-receptor. She then returned to academia and worked on opioids as a postdoctoral trainee with Dr. Brigitte Kieffer , where she studied ligand-directed signaling at the delta-opioid receptor. Her career path-defining moment came from a third postdoctoral experience with Dr. Chris Evans at UCLA. Amynah studied how arrestins regulate ligand-directed signaling at delta-opioid receptors, and it is their collaboration with a headache physician-scientist Dr. Andrew Charles that who specialized in animal models of migraine and delta-opioid receptors as a therapeutic target to treat headache. Dr. Amynah Pradhan on the web Lab page LinkedIn Twitter Google Scholar PubMed Dr. GPCR Ecosystem Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

mGlu2 can suppress drug seeking across four addictive substances - but its clinical results have never been published. Johnson explains why the circuit matters more than the receptor. << Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Kari Johnson: mGlu2, Addiction, and the Brain Circuits Alcohol Rewires The brain circuits governing reward, motivation, and decision making are not fixed - they are continuously reshaped by experience. In alcohol use disorder and other substance addictions, one of the most consequential changes is the shift from goal-directed to habitual behavior: a state in which drug seeking persists not because of pleasure, but because the underlying circuit no longer responds to consequences. mGlu2, a presynaptic metabotropic glutamate receptor coupled to Gi/o proteins, sits at a critical junction in this process. By suppressing glutamate release across circuits in the basal ganglia, mGlu2 is positioned to modulate drug seeking, habit formation, and reward processing - and has been pursued as a potential therapeutic target in addiction, depression, schizophrenia, and Parkinson's disease. Kari Johnson's research follows this receptor from the bench to the behaving animal, using optogenetics and circuit-selective mouse models to ask which specific corticostriatal pathways are driving behavioral change after alcohol exposure - and whether pharmacological rescue is possible after those circuits have already been disrupted. The question has been central to Johnson's career since long before the tools to answer it properly existed. ABOUT THE GUEST Kari Johnson is an assistant professor of neuropharmacology at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda. Her lab investigates how GPCRs modulate synaptic transmission in brain circuits involved in reinforcement learning, with a particular focus on how chronic alcohol exposure disrupts those mechanisms across levels ranging from gene expression to neural circuit function to behavior. She trained in high-throughput drug discovery at Vanderbilt - contributing to early functional assay development for metabotropic glutamate and muscarinic receptors - before completing postdoctoral training at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism with Dave Lovinger. Her current work combines whole-cell patch clamp electrophysiology, optogenetics, and operant behavioral pharmacology to study mGlu2 function in specific corticostriatal circuits and its role in the transition from controlled to compulsive drug use. SCIENTIFIC THEMES OF THE CONVERSATION mGlu2 as a convergence target across addiction, psychiatric disease, and movement disorders Circuit-specific GPCR modulation and the "modulomics" framework Goal-directed versus habitual behavior as a mechanistic framework for understanding addiction Pharmacological rescue of alcohol-disrupted receptor function using positive allosteric modulators The translational gap: why a decade of preclinical mGlu2 evidence has not yet reached clinical success The limits of brain slice electrophysiology - and why optogenetics redefines the questions the field can ask KEY INSIGHTS FROM THE CONVERSATION mGlu2 Sits at the Center of Multiple CNS Disorders Because mGlu2 regulates glutamate release in brain regions linked to reward, executive function, motivation, and stress responses, it has become a target of interest across an unusually broad disease landscape - alcohol use disorder, schizophrenia, depression, Parkinson's disease, and multiple other substance addictions. That breadth is a signal of the receptor's centrality in CNS function. It is also a complication: a receptor that modulates so many circuits will inevitably produce wanted and unwanted effects that are difficult to predict from any single experimental system. Alcohol Disrupts mGlu2 - But a PAM Can Restore It Johnson's lab demonstrated that adolescent alcohol exposure disrupts mGlu2 function in the striatum in a way that might seem to close off therapeutic targeting - if the receptor is impaired, can it still be activated pharmacologically? Their answer was yes: a positive allosteric modulator restored mGlu2 signaling even after alcohol-induced disruption. This finding shifts the question from whether mGlu2 is a viable target in addiction to how to reach it once its function has already been compromised. The Years Before the Tools Existed For most of the history of GPCR electrophysiology, researchers used electrical stimulation in brain slices and could observe that a receptor modulated synaptic transmission - but not which specific set of synaptic inputs was responsible. For Johnson, this was a formative constraint she navigated across her entire training: drawn to circuit-level questions that her early tools could not fully answer, she made the shift to optogenetics and genetically defined neuronal populations specifically because the biology demanded it. The tools arrived late relative to the questions. That gap, in Johnson's framing, is both a limitation of the past and an argument for the field's current momentum. Modulomics: Naming the Question Changes What You Can Ask Johnson's postdoc mentor Dave Lovinger coined the term "modulomics" to describe the systematic study of circuit-specific neuromodulation by GPCRs - using light-activated ion channels expressed in anatomically or genetically defined neurons to isolate receptor effects at individual synaptic inputs rather than across an entire stimulated pathway. Giving the approach a name formalizes it as a research program, not just a technique. Johnson's lab has extended this using conditional knockout mice that allow selective deletion of mGlu2 from specific cell types, enabling circuit-level pharmacology with direct behavioral readouts. The Habit Framework Changes What Addiction Means Pharmacologically The shift from goal-directed to habitual behavior is not just a behavioral description of addiction - it implies a specific circuit mechanism. Goal-directed behavior is sensitive to changes in outcome value; habitual behavior is not. When alcohol exposure biases the brain toward habit formation, the circuit underlying that inflexibility becomes the pharmacological target. Johnson's lab uses this framework to ask whether activating mGlu2 in specific corticostriatal circuits can reverse the habit bias that chronic alcohol produces - not just dampen the pleasure of drinking, but restore the flexibility of the decision that precedes it. Clinical Trial Results for mGlu2 Ligands Have Not Been Made Public Johnson noted that multiple clinical trials testing mGlu2 ligands in substance use disorders - including for smoking cessation and cocaine use disorder - have been conducted and completed. The results have not been released to the research community. Without access to those data, researchers cannot determine why promising preclinical findings did not translate, cannot adjust future trial designs, and cannot evaluate whether the receptor was genuinely ineffective or whether confounds such as prior antipsychotic exposure were responsible - a hypothesis already supported by subsequent preclinical work following the disappointing schizophrenia trials. The gap is consequential, and Johnson named it directly. Translating GPCR Research May Require Releasing Attachment to Specific Receptors One of Johnson's more quietly contrarian observations is that attachment to a "favorite receptor" may be limiting translational success. If mGlu2 activation produces the desired circuit effect in rodents but not in humans, the value of that work is not lost - it defines the functional target. A different receptor capable of achieving the same circuit-level effect in a human brain might carry the therapy further. The question, in Johnson's framing, is not which receptor you prefer, but which receptor is correctly positioned in the human circuit you need to modify. EPISODE TIMELINE Note: Timestamps are AI-generated from the transcript and may require manual verification after video editing. 00:00 Introduction 01:27 Johnson's career path - from Vanderbilt drug discovery to NIH postdoc to independent lab 07:31 Alcohol disrupts mGlu2 in adolescent mice - and a positive allosteric modulator rescues it 09:45 Why mGlu2 is Johnson's receptor of focus: synaptic plasticity and long-term depression 11:26 mGlu2 and drug seeking: preclinical evidence across alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin 13:28 How mGlu2 modulates dopamine release and the neurobiology of habit formation 16:28 Optogenetics and modulomics - studying circuit-specific GPCR function in the basal ganglia 20:45 Operant behavioral models: how habit formation is measured in mice 25:25 Clinical trials for mGlu2 ligands - what advanced, what disappointed, and what remains unpublished 28:41 Are GPCRs still good drug targets? A circuit-level argument 33:12 Advice for junior scientists: let the biology lead the method 35:28 Diversity in STEM and who carries the labor of change SELECTED QUOTES "Even if we see that these experiences cause an impairment in receptor function, there might be pharmacological strategies that we can use to rescue that." "We're really just beginning to scratch the surface of understanding how these receptors work in specific neural circuits - and that has the potential to impact our understanding of how they influence a really wide range of behaviors, especially since mGlu2 is expressed in so many different brain areas." "Maybe the effect that I want to have by activating mGlu2 has the effects I want in a rodent brain, but doesn't have it in a human brain. But maybe there's another receptor there that will have the effect that we want in the human brain." "Let the science lead you. If you take that approach, you'll have plenty of moments where you realize that a new tool could take your research to another level. But there's no reason to force it just because you feel like you should be incorporating a popular technique." About this episode Dr. Kari Johnson is currently an assistant professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. She is a neuropharmacologist with an interest in the long-term effects of alcohol abuse on neural circuits. Kari completed her Ph.D. in Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University before continuing her training as a postdoctoral fellow at the Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. All through her career, the recurring theme in Kari’s work has been GPCRs and more specifically Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors. Join me and learn more about how Kari studies GPCRs in basal ganglia circuits following chronic alcohol exposure in mice. Dr. Kari Johnson on the web LinkedIn Google Scholar Research Gate USU Twitter Dr. GPCR Ecosystem Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Dr. Nicola J. Smith About Dr. Nicola J. Smith Dr. Nicola J Smith is an expert in molecular pharmacology with a track record in exploring GPCR structure-function relationships in the context of cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders. She is a National Heart Foundation of Australia Future Leader Fellow and runs a laboratory of 7 Ph.D. and Honours students at UNSW Sydney, where she has recently been promoted to Associate Professor. Most recently, Dr. Smith’s team has made advances in the understanding of how an orphan GPCR exerts its effects both in vitro (cell culture and ex vivo models) and in vivo (measures of physiological and pathological cardiometabolic function in unconscious and conscious mice). Together with Irina Kufareva , UCSD, her team developed a novel approach to identifying ligands for orphan GPCRs by developing a powerful new computational tool for identifying ‘surrogate’ ligands (borrowed from other receptors) for orphan GPCRs, named GPCR-CoINPocket. Her career goal is to leverage this expertise to establish a research program that takes orphan GPCRs from ‘locked’, inaccessible receptors to well-characterized and understood ‘unlocked’ therapeutic targets with high-affinity ligands. Dr. Nicola J. Smith on the web UNSW Sydney LinkedIn Retraction Watch Twitter Dr. GPCR Ecosystem Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Dr. Josephine (Pina) Cardarelli About Dr. Josephine (Pina) Cardarelli Dr. Pina Cardarelli, CSO for GPCR Therapeutics Inc., based in South Korea, has recently been named President of GPCR Therapeutics, USA, a newly incorporated Biotechnology company in the Bay Area. The company’s mission is to discover and develop highly effective cancer therapeutics by targeting heteromers of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR). Burixafor, their most advanced clinical candidate, will be in Phase II clinical trial next year. Additionally, they have a library of target GPCR heteromers for Oncology. Dr. Cardarelli heads the team of talented researchers that will be expanding at the US site. Dr. Cardarelli is a drug development leader with extensive experience driving drug discovery teams in bringing biologics to clinical proof of concepts. She has expertise in cell biology, pharmacology, translational medicine, oncology, immuno-oncology, immunology, and clinical development. Previously, she held the position of Vice President of Cell Biology & Pharmacology, at Bristol-Myers Squibb . She was an integral contributor to two therapeutics that are FDA approved, Yervoy and Opdivo. She was a participant in numerous due diligence (anti-CXCL8 mAb) and has managed external collaborations and alliances. Prior to this, she held the position of Vice President, at Medarex, Inc . While at BMS and Medarex, she led programs from target ID to clinical development that included, CXCL10 (Eldelumab), CXCR4 (Ulocuplumab), CD30, CD19, Fucosyl GM-1, & mesothelin-ADC, Glypican-3-ADC, CD70-ADC. She oversaw early discovery programs IL-23 p19 and IL23 p19/IL-17 bispecifics. At Medarex, she initiated and identified the lead mAb for the type I interferon-alpha receptor project, licensed to AstraZeneca (Saphnelo™ Anifrolumab) that has just received FDA approval for systemic lupus erythematosus. She has extensive experience working with Biologics, and Antibody Drug Conjugates as well as experience in IND fillings, IB updates, and responding to FDA inquiries. She is an inventor on 39 issued U.S. patents including anti-PD-1 patents, 22 EP patents, and greater than 100 global patents centered around therapeutic development. She has also authored forty-six peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Cardarelli received her Ph.D. in Physiology from Albany Medical College. Dr. Josephine (Pina) Cardarelli on the web LinkedIn Company Website Dr. GPCR Ecosystem Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Robert Laprairie About Dr. Robert Laprairie Dr. Robert Laprairie is an Associate Professor and the Saskatchewan Research Chair in Drug Discovery and Development in the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition at the University of Saskatchewan. The focus of his research is the molecular pharmacology of cannabinoids and cannabinoid receptors. He was the 2018 and 2021 recipient of the Young Investigator of the Year Awards from the British Pharmacological Society and International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS), respectively. In 2019 he became the Director of Education for the Canadian Consortium for the Investigation of Cannabinoids (CCIC) and now also serves as the organization’s President. Dr. Robert Laprairie on the web University of Saskatchewan Twitter Instagram ResearchGate Google Scholar Dr. GPCR Ecosystem Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Dr. Caron Tribute Part 1 About Marc Caron Dr. Caron and his family moved to Durham, NC in 1977, following receipt of his BSc in Chemistry from Laval University and his Ph.D. from the University of Miami. He joined the faculty of Laval University School of Medicine in 1975 and then returned to join Duke’s faculty, where he remained as a James B. Duke Professor until his death. He and his laboratory members studied the mechanisms of action and regulation of hormones and neurotransmitters and how they might underlie brain and behavior disorders such as schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, mood disorders, and addiction. Among his many honors, Dr. Caron was an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1992 to 2004, a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a recipient of the Julius Axelrod Award. An authoritative and prolific scientist, with over 650 scientific publications, he is most beloved as a mentor and his relentless encouragement that shaped the careers of hundreds of scientists worldwide. About our panelists in alphabetical order and the year they first met Dr. Caron Dr. Jeffrey Benovic (1985) Dr. Michel Bouvier (1985) Dr. Kathleen Caron - Co-host- (1970) Dr. Richard Cerione (1985) Dr. Brian Kolbilka (1987) Dr. Frederik Leeb-Lundberg (1984) Dr. Robert Lefkowitz (1973) Dr. Lee Limbird (1973) Dr. David Sibley (1988) Memories our panelists shared with us https://video.wixstatic.com/video/93ce84_92e3a06139244357b0823e3ecc294e27/1080p/mp4/file.mp4 Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Dr. Sudarshan Rajagopal About Dr. Sudarshan Rajagopal Dr. Sudarshan Rajagopal obtained his B.S. in Chemistry from The University of Chicago in 1998. He subsequently enrolled in the Medical Scientist Training Program at The University of Chicago. During his doctoral work in the lab of Prof. Keith Moffat, he studied the structural mechanisms of bacterial photoreceptors using time-resolved Laue crystallography. He was awarded his Ph.D. in 2004 and his MD in 2006. He then joined the Internal Medicine Residency training program at Duke University Medical Center. During his Cardiology fellowship, he trained in the lab of Dr. Robert J. Lefkowitz , where his research focused on biased agonism, with the development of approaches to quantify ligand bias and the identification of beta-arrestin-biased receptors. After completing his training in clinical cardiology, he started as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. The main focus of his lab’s research is on the mechanisms underlying biased agonism at chemokine receptors and how that contributes to inflammation. The chemokine system is relatively unique in having multiple receptors and multiple ligands that display considerable promiscuity for one another. His group and others have shown that many of these ligands act as biased agonists for the same receptor. His lab is also interested in identifying novel signal transduction mechanisms of GPCRs, such as the formation of complexes between G proteins and beta-arrestins. His clinical focus is on pulmonary arterial hypertension, a disease of the pulmonary arterioles that causes right heart failure, and he serves as co-director of the Duke Pulmonary Vascular Disease Center. Dr. Sudarshan Rajagopal on the web LinkedIn Website Google Scholar LinkedIn Dr. GPCR Ecosystem Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Dr. Ilana Kotliar About Dr. Ilana Kotliar "Ilana Kotliar is a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Tom Sakmar at The Rockefeller University, where she just recently defended her PhD thesis. Ilana uses chemical biology-based methods to study the regulation and protein-protein interactions of GPCRs and a small family of accessory proteins called RAMPs. Ilana’s research is multi-disciplinary and involves a close collaboration with proteomics experts at The Science for Life Laboratory in Sweden. She is a recipient of the prestigious Women in Entrepreneurship Award, an NIH T32 Training Grant, and two Nicholson Fellowships. Outside of the lab, Ilana is a leader within her community, spearheading several outreach initiatives including a global mentoring initiative that matches graduate student mentors to PhD applicants. Ilana graduated Summa cum laude from Cornell University, where she studied Chemistry and Chemical Biology and was recognized as a Merrill Presidential Scholar." Dr. Ilana Kotliar on the web Google Scholar LinkedIn Twitter Dr. GPCR Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Dr. Arthur Christopoulos About Dr. Arthur Christopoulos " Arthur Christopoulos is the Professor of Analytical Pharmacology and the Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Australia. His research focuses on novel paradigms of drug action at GPCRs, particularly allosteric modulation and biased agonism, and incorporates computational and mathematical modelling, structural and chemical biology, molecular and cellular pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, and preclinical models of behaviour and disease. His work has been applied to studies encompassing neurological and psychiatric disorders, cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, chronic pain and addiction. He has received substantial, long-term support from international and national competitive, charitable and commercial sources, as well as being academic co-founder of three GPCR-focussed biotechnology companies. Professor Christopoulos has over 360 publications, including in leading international journals such as Nature,Science and Cell, and has delivered over 180 invited presentations. He has served on the Editorial Board of 8 international journals and was a Councillor of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR). He has also been the recipient of multiple awards, including the John J. Abel Award and the Goodman and Gilman Award from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics; the Rand Medal from the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists; the British Pharmacological Society’s Gaddum Memorial Award; the IUPHAR Sir James Black Analytical Pharmacology Lecturer; the GSK Award for Research Excellence and a Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) from the University of Athens. Since 2014, Clarivate Analytics have annually named him a Highly Cited Researcher in ‘Pharmacology & Toxicology’, and in 2021 also named him a Highly Cited Researcher in the additional category of ‘Biology & Biochemistry’. In 2017, he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, in 2018 as a Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society, and in 2021 he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science for his seminal contributions to drug discovery. In 2023, he was elected a Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. " Dr. Arthur Christopoulos on the web Monash University Wikipedia Google Scholar LinkedIn Dr. GPCR AI Summary AI-generated content may be inaccurate or misleading. Always check for accuracy. Quick recap Yamina and Arthur from Monash University discussed Arthur's career journey, the importance of hard work, failure, and differentiation in academic and personal lives, and the value of international conferences. They also explored the significance of translating fundamental discoveries into clinical applications, the potential of new drugs, and the unique challenges within universities. Additionally, they discussed the importance of hiring based on differentiation, impact, and interest, the need for workforce development, and the potential of involving junior scientists and postdocs in their podcast. Lastly, they touched upon the global challenges of healthcare workforce growth, climate change, and emerging psychiatric disorders, as well as the importance of recording lectures and making pre-lesson materials available to students. Next steps - Yamina will share notes about PRISM and presentability with Arthur. - Arthur will share the story of PRISM's development and its impact on the field with Yamina. - Yamina will send an invite for a follow-up meeting with Arthur next Saturday at 9 PM. - Arthur and Yamina will prepare for the next meeting, focusing on the concept of biased agonism and discussing Dr. GPCR and the charity status. - Yamina will attempt to book Denise for a future podcast episode. Summary Arthur's Career Journey and Transition to Dean Yamina introduced Arthur to her team and discussed the use of a particular tool for meeting summaries. Arthur shared his career journey from pharmacy to becoming a professor, highlighting the influence of his mentors and the importance of his postdoctoral experience. They discussed the value of hard work, failure, and the significance of differentiation in their personal and academic lives. Towards the end, they focused on Arthur's transition to become Dean and his decision to move from Australia to the United States for a postdoctoral position. Postdoctoral Position, Scientific Dynamics, and New Drug Targets Arthur shared his decision to undertake a postdoctoral position with Nigel Bird's lab in the UK and his experiences of meeting influential figures during his time in the US. He and Yamina discussed the importance of preserving original work, the value of international conferences, and the dynamics between junior and senior scientists in a research environment. They also shared their admiration for the work of a mutual friend and discussed the history of muscarinic receptors, specifically focusing on the role of a compound that Arthur received from Fred. Lastly, they discussed the progress of new drugs targeting specific receptors for various diseases, with Arthur sharing insights on Eli Lilly's compound, Xanomeline, and the potential of M4 PAM for psychosis. Collaborative Research and Translational Approach Arthur and Yamina from Monash University discussed their collaborative approach to scientific research, emphasizing the benefits of combining their complementary skills and interests. They shared their unconventional approaches to research, including the creation of a critical mass of GPCR researchers in Australia and the initiation of a successful series of conferences. They also discussed the relocation of some university labs to facilitate collaboration and overcome the siloed department structure. Additionally, they explored the unique culture and structure of their Institute, highlighting its translational approach to research and its capacity to translate research into therapeutic commercialization. Lastly, Arthur shared three significant moments that shaped his career, including the evolution and impact of analytical pharmacology, particularly highlighting the role of Prism, a data analysis tool. Podcast Format, Team Culture, and Science Yamina and Arthur concluded their discussion and decided to take a short break. They talked about the format and length of their podcast, their professional interests, and their recent successful bid to bring Moderna to their university. They also explored the idea of starting a similar talk show format to 'Between Two Ferns', the importance of maintaining team culture, and the potential health issues among well-known scientists. Lastly, they discussed the growth and development of the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the importance of knowing when to let go in scientific experiments, and the idea of a panel for building and incubating companies. Arthur's Pandemic Journey and Global Challenges Yamina and Arthur discussed Arthur's experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic, his journey as a research fellow in Australia, and his transition to the role of Dean. Arthur shared his insights into the unique grant funding system in Australia, the importance of impact in research, and the challenges of balancing administrative responsibilities with scientific pursuits. He also reflected on his personal health struggles, the growth of his university, and the faculty's successful response to the Covid crisis. The conversation also touched upon Arthur's career decisions, his scientific achievements, and the importance of learning from mistakes and self-confidence. Lastly, they discussed the global challenges of healthcare workforce growth, climate change, and emerging psychiatric disorders, as well as the importance of recording lectures and having pre-lesson materials available to students. Translating Discovery Into Clinical Application Arthur and Yamina discussed the importance of translating fundamental discoveries into clinical applications in their research, highlighting the unique opportunities presented by their location and partnerships with other institutions. They stressed the necessity of making their research goals clearer, avoiding replication, and adopting a more assertive approach in grant applications. They also emphasized the significance of fundamental discoveries, the role of biotech, and the need for efficiency and process development in university systems. The conversation highlighted ongoing challenges within universities, including resistance to change and the need to communicate expectations and protect established cultures. Hiring Process, Collaboration, and Education-Focused Initiatives Arthur emphasized the importance of differentiation, impact, and interest in their hiring process and fostering a culture of collaboration. He shared his vision of breaking down barriers and promoting education-focused initiatives, encouraging his team to be innovative and apply their skills to education. Yamina expressed a desire to learn from successful leaders and the importance of recognizing talent and matching it with the needs of a particular project. They also discussed the disruption within the pharmaceutical sector, the importance of workforce development, and the need for maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Lastly, they deliberated on involving junior scientists and postdocs in their podcast and the possibility of writing a book about their experiences in academia. Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Brian Shoichet About Dr. Brian Shoichet BSc in Chemistry from MIT, Ph.D. with Tack Kuntz at UCSF; Postdoc with Brian Matthews in protein stability-activity tradeoffs, crystallography; started my independent lab at Northwestern University Medical School (1996) was recruited back to UCSF in 2003. Dr. Brian Shoichet on the web Google Scholar Shoichet Lab Twitter Dr. GPCR Ecosystem Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Gáspár Pándy-Szekeres About Gáspár Pándy-Szekeres " After a BSc in biology and a MSc in bioinformatics, I have been working in David Gloriam's group as a bioinformatician. My initial focus was on creating an automated chimeric homology modeling pipeline for GPCRs and since have branched out to multiple areas of GPCR research such as sequence alignments, generic numbering systems, structure data, G protein and arrestin coupling and more. As a developer, and more recently the lead developer of GPCRdb my day-to-day work centers around the maintenance and resource/tool development of GPCRdb and its sister databases. I am also affiliated with György Keserű's group at the RCNS in Hungary. I lived in Denmark, Poland, now I live in Hungary. I am married, I have two daughters. In my free time I like to play the guitar, sing and play board games. " Gáspár Pándy-Szekeres on the web LinkedIn University of Copenhagen ResearchGate Twitter Dr. GPCR Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

In this short resilience conversation, Dr. Graciela Pineyro shares what a forced lab shutdown taught her about prioritization, remote lab meetings, and running a research program across closed borders. << Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Graciela Pineyro: Resilience, Lab Life, and the Zoom Effect Research doesn't pause neatly. In March 2020, Dr. Graciela Pineyro — a principal investigator at CHU Sainte-Justine in Montreal studying GPCR signaling — watched her lab close from one day to the next. This short resilience conversation, part of a Dr. GPCR Podcast series capturing the realities of scientific life, returns to Dr. Pineyro several months into the shutdown to hear what she learned. The discussion moves across three overlapping questions: how a forced pause reshapes scientific prioritization, how remote lab meetings alter who speaks up and why, and what it costs a scientist personally to keep a lab running across a closed international border. For Dr. Pineyro, whose husband remained in Uruguay for the duration of the shutdown, the scientific work and the human cost were never separate conversations. What emerges is a quiet argument that the structural shifts the pandemic forced — project planning in self-contained blocks, flatter meeting dynamics, planned reflection time — may deserve to survive the return to the bench. About the Guest Dr. Graciela Pineyro is a principal investigator at CHU Sainte-Justine in Montreal, where her research group works on GPCR signaling. She is a returning guest of the Dr. GPCR Podcast; her earlier episode covers her scientific profile in depth, including her research trajectory, laboratory focus, and contributions to the field. This resilience conversation captures her voice not as a researcher presenting results, but as a PI speaking candidly about how her program is navigating a moment no one planned for. Scientific Themes of the Conversation Forced pause as a prioritization tool — How closure reveals what a lab would otherwise never stop to question. The democratizing effect of remote meetings — Why some lab members speak more freely from home than they ever did in person. Experimental planning under uncertainty — Structuring projects into self-contained blocks so a lab can survive iterative shutdowns. The personal geography of modern science — What it costs a scientist when the research program and the family are in different countries. Civic responsibility in returning to the bench — Deconfining a research center slowly, with planning for possible return to closure. Key Insights from the Conversation The pause was never just a pause. Dr. Pineyro frames the shutdown not as lost time but as a rare moment of recul — the French word for a step back that allows for perspective. She talks about finally being able to ask which projects deserved to be finished first, second, third. The question was always there; the pause was what forced it to be answered. Zoom did not flatten the lab. It flattened the hierarchy of who gets heard. The most striking observation in the conversation: lab members who rarely spoke up during in-person meetings began contributing more on Zoom. Dr. Pineyro notes she isn't sure why — something about speaking from home, something about reduced interpersonal threat. But the finding is sharp enough to take seriously when in-person dynamics return. Planning in blocks is a form of resilience. The lab restructured projects into discrete, self-contained units — each one designed so that if the research center closed again, the team would still have something to analyze, something to write. This is operational wisdom that long outlives the pandemic. The personal cost doesn't stay outside the lab. Dr. Pineyro speaks openly about her husband being stuck in Uruguay since March, missing their planned reunion, hoping for Christmas. She does not separate this from the scientific conversation — and the listener shouldn't either. Running a lab during the pandemic was rarely just a scientific problem. Returning to the bench is a decision, not a default. The research center was deconfining at 20% capacity the week of the recording. Dr. Pineyro frames reopening as something her team is taking "civically with responsibility and a grain of salt" — acknowledging that back-and-forth closures may be the new baseline. That framing, made months before it became the standard narrative, is worth noticing. Some pandemic-era practices deserve to survive. The implicit argument threaded through the whole conversation: the structural shifts forced by the shutdown — planned reflection, remote meeting inclusion, block-based project design — may be worth keeping. Not because the pandemic was good for science, but because normal lab life had quietly suppressed some of the things the pause made visible. Episode Timeline Timestamps were generated using AI for readability. 00:00 Introduction and 2020 Summit announcement 01:45 Welcoming a returning guest 02:02 How COVID reshaped the lab and the personal cost 03:30 Using forced pause for prioritization 04:10 Planning experiments in self-contained blocks 04:47 The Zoom effect — quieter voices speaking up 05:49 Closing reflections 06:01 Outro Selected Quotes "One day we were doing experiments, and the next we had to close. We have to go back now and start from scratch." "Zoom democratizes the world. People that usually do not speak so much in the lab meetings were speaking a little bit more through Zoom." "We are sort of thinking in advancing our projects in sort of blocks, closing some questions very tightly. So if we are sent back home, at least we have something to work on." "We are all prepared to take this civically with responsibility and also with a grain of salt, knowing that we might have to be going back and forth for a while before everything goes back to normal." About this episode: Dr. Graciela Pineyro is a professor of pharmacology at the department of pharmacology and physiology of the University of Montreal. She has done extensive work on the molecular pharmacology of opioid receptors and is currently focusing on the pharmacology of cannabinoids in the context of pain. We chatted about how the current pandemic has affected her personally and professionally. Dr. Graciela Pineyro on the web Dr. Graciela Pineyro on LinkedIn Dr. Graciela Pineyro - University of Montreal Dr. Graciela Pineyro - CHU Ste-Justine Research Centre Pineyro Lab Publications on Google Scholar Pineyro Lab on Pubmed Dr. GPCR Ecosystem Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Dr. Jean-Philippe Pin About Dr. Jean-Philippe Pin Jean-Philippe Pin participated in the discovery of metabotropic glutamate receptors. Since then, he has been studying the allosteric modulation and activation mechanism of this family of G protein-coupled receptors using innovative approaches, including biosensors, cryo-EM, photoswitchable ligands, and nanobodies as pharmacological tools and potential therapeutic agents. His studies led to new concepts in the GPCR field, such as the activation of cell surface receptors by intracellular proteins; the regulation of GPCRs by both negative and positive allosteric modulators, and the asymmetric functioning of GPCR dimers. Dr. Jean-Philippe Pin on the web LinkedIn ResearchGate CNRS Fondation Bettencourt Schueller FRC Neurodon Dr. GPCR Ecosystem Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Dr. JoAnn Trejo About Dr. JoAnn Trejo Dr. JoAnn Trejo earned her Ph.D. at UC San Diego. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at UC San Francisco under the guidance of Professor Shaun Coughlin where she worked on the newly discovered protease-activated GPCRs. Dr. Trejo joined the faculty in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina in 2000 and then moved to UC San Diego School Medicine, Department of Pharmacology in 2008, where she quickly rose through the ranks to tenured professor in 2012. In 2014, she was appointed Vice-Chair of the Department of Pharmacology. The long-term goal of Dr. Trejo’s research program is to gain a thorough and mechanistic understanding of processes that control cell signaling by protease-activated receptors (PARs) and the impact on vascular inflammation and cancer progression. PARs are GPCRs that are activated through an atypical irreversible proteolytic mechanism. The precise control of PAR signaling is critical for proper temporal and spatial dynamics of signaling and appropriate cellular responses. Discovering new aspects of PAR signaling is important for increasing the fundamental knowledge of GPCR biology and for the identification of drug targets and future drug development. Dr. Trejo’s research has focused on PAR1, which has important functions in hemostasis, thrombosis, inflammation, and cancer and is an important drug target. She has made numerous important discoveries related to the mechanisms that control PAR1 signaling and closely related family members and published extensively on this topic. Dr. Trejo has been continuously funded by the NIH for >20 years and was a recipient of the prestigious American Heart Association Established Investigator Award. Her laboratory is the recognized expert on protease-activated receptors, particularly PAR1, and over the years she has discovered novel aspects of GPCR biology, acquired critical expertise, and rigorous approaches to examine PAR1 function using human cultured cells and mouse models. Dr. Trejo has presented her studies at 52 national/international meetings and 66 academic seminars across the U.S. Dr. JoAnn Trejo on the web UC San Diego Trejo Lab Wikipedia LinkedIn Google Scholar Orcid Twitter UC San Diego School of Medicine Researchgate Dr. GPCR Ecosystem Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Dr. Shivani Sachdev About Dr. Shivani Sachdev "Dr. Sachdev is an early career researcher in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Her research centers on developing nanobody-ligand conjugates to target GPCRs, with a focus on receptors relevant for treating osteoporosis, diabetes, and pain. She received her undergraduate degree in Biotechnology from KIIT University in India. She subsequently joined Professor Mark Connor's laboratory at Macquarie University in Australia. Dr. Sachdev pursued Ph.D. in the same lab where she investigated the molecular pharmacology of cannabinoid receptors. She is also very active within the pharmacology community and currently serves on the editorial board of the British Journal of Pharmacology. Given her expertise in GPCR pharmacology and scientific communication, she is poised to make valuable contributions to the field and expand our understanding of GPCR signaling." Dr. Shivani Sachdev on the web NIDDK ReseachGate Google Scholar LinkedIn Twitter Dr. GPCR Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Dr. Marta Filizola About Dr. Marta Filizola Dr. Marta Filizola is the Sharon & Frederick A. Klingenstein-Nathan G. Kase, MD Professor in the Departments of Pharmacological Sciences, Neuroscience, and Artificial Intelligence and Human Health, as well as the Dean of The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York, USA. The overall goal of her research program is to obtain rigorous mechanistic insights into the structure, dynamics, and function of important classes of membrane proteins and prominent drug targets, including G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), transporters, channels, and 3 integrins. To this end, her lab uses several computational structural biology tools and rational drug design approaches, ranging from molecular modeling, bioinformatics, cheminformatics, molecular dynamics simulations, free-energy perturbations, machine learning, etc. A native of Italy, she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemistry from the University Federico II in Naples. She pursued a Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry at the Second University of Naples and a postdoctorate in Computational Biophysics at the Molecular Research Institute in California, USA. Dr. Marta Filizola on the web Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Filizola Lab Wikipedia Twitter Linkedin ResearchGate Google Scholar Orcid PubMed Dr. GPCR Ecosystem Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

Join the scientific exchange in the room with the scientist, not watching from the audience. Access 200+ expert sessions at Dr. GPCR University. University / Live Masterclass Sessions In the room with the scientist, not watching from the audience. Live scientific exchanges with leading GPCR experts. Interactive, question-driven, frontier science. This isn't a lecture — it's a conversation with the people shaping GPCR discovery. Masterclass is included inDr. GPCR University Try it for 14 days Upcoming live sessions Your next Live Masterclass Session is waiting Each session focuses on a specific pharmacology or GPCR discovery topic, led by a recognized expert. Live Q&A means your questions get real answers. GPCR Desensitization in Health and Disease Dr. Adriano Marchese | Medical College of Wisconsin October 22, 2026 Receptor Signaling Details Introduction to GLP-1 pharmacology Dr. Marsha Pierce | Midewestern University October 29, 2026 Translational Pharmacology & Disease Models Details What makes this different? Not a lecture. Not a webinar. A scientific exchange. The Masterclass was created because the most valuable insights in GPCR science aren't captured in papers or conference talks. Scientist-to-scientist discussion Extended Q&A allows deeper exploration than typical presentations. You're engaging directly with the expert — not submitting a question to a moderator. Beyond conference time limits Topics are explored in greater depth than standard conference talks allow. Sessions focus on scientific reasoning, data interpretation, and real discovery problems. Focused audience of specialists Sessions bring together GPCR researchers, pharmacologists, and discovery scientists. The conversation stays at the right level because everyone in the room speaks the same scientific language. Every session recorded Can't make it live? Every Masterclass is recorded and available on demand in the library. Revisit the science anytime — over 200 sessions and growing. On-demand library 200+ expert sessions, available anytime Full recordings of every Masterclass session. Revisit the science at your pace — filter by category, level, or instructor. Explore all Recorded Masterclasses → The scientists Learn directly from world leaders in GPCR research Adriano Marchese Dmitry Veprintsev Matteo Pavan Terry Kenakin Andrew Tobin Jakob Höppner Samuel Hoare Yamina Berchiche Bryan Roth Kenneth Jacobson Sudarshan Rajagopal Davide Calebiro Marsha Pierce Terry Hébert What scientists say? From the people in the room I am a convert! I will keep Dr. GPCR and the offered resources in my work sphere Dr. Hoare is very experienced in the field. What came as a pleasant surprise was how didactical and well-thought-out his course was—highly recommended. The really unexpected was that the Q&A sessions reached the highest level—beyond excellent. GPCR researcher Thank you for bringing this course with Dr. Kenakin. I wish Dr. GPCR the best for the sake of promoting more educational opportunities that are sorely needed in the field GPCR researcher The content had enough depth to satisfy the hunger for theory while being full of practical knowledge GPCR researcher The best pharmacology teacher teaming up with the best GPCR community platform to help train and inspire the next generation of scientists. Also super-valuable for those of us learning how to teach pharmacology GPCR researcher Dr. Hoare's extensive and elaborative explanation of the topics at hand was excellent and very digestible. Thoroughly enjoyed learning from him GPCR researcher Dr. Kenakin is a leading expert in the field. Aside from his vast experience in drug development, not to mention his extensive publication record, Dr. Kenakin is a masterful teacher and communicator. GPCR researcher The course was very practical and easily translatable to experiments that we could do in our own labs. It was clear that Dr. Hoare is very in touch with the technical and human challenges we encounter in our work GPCR researcher About the GPCR Masterclass What is a GPCR Masterclass? The GPCR Masterclass is a live scientific discussion with a leading expert in GPCR pharmacology, receptor biology, or drug discovery. Sessions focus on research questions, experimental interpretation, and emerging challenges in GPCR science. Are the sessions live or recorded? Masterclass sessions are conducted live with an invited expert. After the event, recordings are added to the Masterclass course library, where Premium Members can access them on demand. Who should join? The Masterclass is designed for GPCR researchers, pharmacologists, and drug discovery scientists working in academia, biotech, and pharmaceutical research. Can I watch sessions later if I miss the live event? Yes. All sessions are recorded and available in the Masterclass course library for Premium Members. Can I watch sessions later if I miss the live event? Yes. All sessions are recorded and available in the Masterclass course library for Premium Members. How do I fit this in my schedule? You can attend the live discussion or watch the recording later. The Masterclass library allows members to revisit sessions at any time. What makes the Masterclass different from reading papers or textbooks? The Masterclass focuses on scientific interpretation and discussion. Experts explain how they think about pharmacological data, experimental design, and discovery challenges—insight that is rarely captured in publications. What happens during the live discussion? Each session begins with a focused presentation from the guest expert, followed by moderated discussion and questions from participants. The format allows deeper exploration of pharmacology concepts than typical conference presentations. Masterclass is included in Dr. GPCR University Live sessions, 200+ on-demand recordings, plus premium intelligence, jobs, events, and a community of GPCR scientists — all in one place. See what it feels like for 14 days. Try University for 14 days — $50 Your professional home in GPCR science. $499/year after trial.

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) GPCR location matters with Dr. Gabriele Kockelkoren About Gabriele Kockelkoren I have a strong background in both physics and molecular biology and, accordingly, I strive in interdisciplinary environments. After completing a cum laude BSc. and MSc. in Nanobiology at the Technical University of Delft in The Netherlands, I pursued a PhD at the University of Copenhagen under the supervision of Prof. Dimitrios Stamou. In my PhD, I studied the nanoscale spatial organization of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) at the plasma membrane of living cells. Importantly, my work revealed heterogeneous spatial patterns of receptor density and activation, that are modulated in a drug-dependent manner. These findings identify nanoscale GPCR spatial organization as an integral element of their activity and signaling. Currently, I am a Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab of Prof. Alice Ting developing programmable receptors for molecular sensing and controlling cellular behaviour. Gabriele Kockelkoren on the web Stanford University X LinkedIn Google Scholar ORCID ResearchGate Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

<< Back to podcast list Strategic Partner(s) Dr. Richard Premont About Dr. Richard Premont "Dr. Premont obtained his B.S. in Biology and Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology in 1985, and M.Ph . and Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences (Pharmacology) at Mount Sinai School of Medicine (City University of New York) in 1990 and 1992, working with Ravi Iyengar on regulation/desensitization of the liver glucagon receptor and glucagon-stimulated adenylyl cyclase system. In 1992, he won a Helen Hay Whitney Foundation fellowship to support his post-doctoral work with Robert Lefkowitz and Marc Caron at Duke University. His initial project to identify and clone taste receptors was unsuccessful, but led to the identification of GRK5 and continued focus on GRKs (particularly GRKs 4,5,6) and arrestins as GPCR regulators and as mediators of distinct signaling pathways through partners including GIT1. In 1999, obtained an independent faculty position at Duke in Gastroenterology, where he remained until 2018 studying GPCRs and their signaling pathways in the liver and in liver disease. In 2018, he moved to Harrington Discovery Institute and Case Western Reserve University, where he studies GPCR regulation by S-nitrosylation. My research focus is on understanding how distinct cellular signaling pathways interact and are coordinated to produce integrated physiological responses, and how dysregulation of this coordination results in pathophysiology. For this, we have worked in three main areas: the regulation of G protein-coupled receptor signaling particularly by the G protein-coupled receptor kinase (GRK) – beta-arrestin system, the coordination of heterotrimeric G protein, small GTP-binding protein and protein kinase pathways by GIT/PIX scaffolding complexes during cellular signaling, and characterizing the role of protein S-nitrosylation as a signaling post-translational modification in mediating and regulating cellular signaling pathways, particularly in conjunction with better characterized signaling systems. In our work, we utilize methods including structural biology and proteomics, molecular biology and biochemical enzymology, primary and model cell culture, and transgenic, knockout, knock-in and conditional models of mouse physiology and behavior." Dr. Richard Premont on the web Google Scholar LinkedIn Dr. GPCR Unlock the Full Dr. GPCR Learning Ecosystem ✔ Full Masterclass library ✔ Terry's Pharmacology Corner ✔ Advanced GPCR courses ✔ Scientific discussions → Become Premium Upcoming Live Expert Sessions ➚ 🔒Explore the Full Masterclass ➚ Enjoying the Dr. GPCR Podcast? Leave a Review. Leave a quick review to help more scientists find the show—and help us keep improving every episode. It takes <60 seconds and makes a big difference. ★ Review on Apple Podcasts ★ Rate on Spotify ✉️ Send feedback to the team Thanks for listening to this podcast episode Follow us on your favorite Podcast Player << Previous Podcast Episode Next Podcast Episode >>

Eurofins Discovery: Comprehensive GPCR Solutions for Confident Drug Discovery Your One-Stop-Shop for End-to-End GPCR Drug Discovery Services Explore capabilities Start a conversation As a trusted discovery partner, Eurofins Discovery transforms complex GPCR pharmacology intoclear, actionable insights through unmatched assay breadth, scientific expertise, and end-to-endcapabilities spanning target validation to candidate advancement. Backed by more than 30 years of GPCR experience, including 20+ years of successful Integrated Drug Discovery (IDD) expertise, and a portfolio of over 2,750 assays, covering one of the broadest ranges of GPCR targets in the industry, we provide the flexibility and expertise needed at every stage of discovery. Beyond screening, our capabilities include custom assay development, deorphanization, biophysical characterization, translational models, and advanced pharmacology support. Combined with high-throughput execution and rapid turnaround times, we help generate the biologically relevant insights needed to reduce risk and advance the right candidates forward. GPCR Screening Services Flexible Study Formats Screening campaigns Mechanistic pharmacology studies Custom assay solutions Translational & advanced cell models Cell-based and biochemical assays In vitro efficacy studies Functional Pharmacology & Binding Expertise cAMP, β-Arrestin, calcium flux, receptor internalization Radioligand binding, affinity determination, kinetic characterization Biased signaling and allosteric modulation Ortholog and species variant profiling Integrated Discovery Capabilities Deorphanization & translational pharmacology Assay development & high-throughput screening Hit identification & lead optimization Integrated drug discovery support Pharmacology endpoints Detailed characterization of GPCR activity and function Capabilities span the key endpoints that describe how a receptor behaves Key areas Services across the discovery continuum Binding & Functional GPCR Assays The industry's most extensive collection of validated assays, available individually or in panels. View Biophysics Biophysical characterization for mechanistic, structure-informed insight. View Custom Assays & Deorphanization Custom assay development and deorphanization for challenging or novel targets. View Integrated Drug Discovery End-to-end programs from target validation through candidate advancement. View Protein Production GPCR protein production to support downstream functional and structural work. View Advanced Pharmacology & Translational Models Advanced pharmacology and translational models for biologically relevant data. View Signature Panels Purpose-built GPCR panels Run in agonist formats for profiling, selectivity, and promiscuity gpcrMAX orphanMAX Chemokine obesityLITE Peptide Hormone Class B Therapeutic focus Where the science is applied Deep coverage across the areas driving GPCR discovery today. In the spotlight Featured this year A closer look at highlighted panels and newly launched capabilities Signature panels Peptide Hormone Class B Panel Functional coverage of Class B GPCRs, the peptide hormone receptors central to metabolic and endocrine drug discovery Recently launched GSIS A newly launched addition to the metabolic portfolio, expanding options for physiologically relevant screening. 30+ years in GPCR experince 2,750+ validated functional and binding GPCR assays 300+ GPCR targets covered GPCRome broad coverage across the human GPCRome One integrated platform The full power of Eurofins Discovery These services are one part of an integrated GPCR platform. Combined with Eurofins DiscoverX products and Calixar membrane proteins, they span the entire discovery and development continuum. Products Eurofins DiscoverX Validated GPCR cell lines, assay kits, and custom products, on the same platform as our services View the DiscoverX page Additional services Eurofins Discovery Chemistry capabilities ADME capabilities Safety Capabilities Key resources Downloadable guides & references Scientists-first materials to explore the science in depth. Obesity Resource Guide GSIS Flyer Metabolic Disorder CNS Rapid Functional Cell-Based Activity Profiling of Multi-receptor Targeted Anti-obesity Therapies - Webinars GPCR Flyer Peptide Hormone Class B Panel Flyer Oncology Innovating Obesity Drug Discovery: Trends, Challenges, and Translational Strategies - Webinars Get in touch Talk to the Eurofins Discovery team Reach the group nearest you, or start a conversation through the Dr. GPCR ecosystem Follow along on LinkedIn - or send us a note through your partner page Contact us

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