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Seminar Brian Kobilka - Friday, 5th June, 3 pm - Auditorium at FCT-UNL Library

04-06-2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, 5th June, 3 pm

Auditorium at FCT-UNL Library

Brian Kobilka – Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2012

Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University

 

Structural insights into the dynamic process of G protein coupled receptor signaling

G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) conduct the majority of transmembrane responses to hormones and neurotransmitters, and mediate the senses of sight, smell and taste. The 2 adrenergic receptor (2AR), the M2 muscarinic receptor and the mu-opioid receptor are prototypical Family A GPCRs. We have obtained three-dimensional structures of these receptors in inactive and active conformations, as well as a structure of the 2AR in complex with the G protein Gs. Comparison of these structures provides insights into common mechanisms for propagation of conformational changes from the agonist binding pocket to the G protein coupling interface. We have also used fluorescence, EPR and NMR spectroscopy to study the dynamic properties of the β2AR. I will discuss what we these studies have taught us about allosteric regulation of GPCR structure by G proteins and ligands.

 

Biography

Professor Brian Kobilka (Nobel Laureate 2012) is Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
He earned his M.D., cum laude, from Yale University School of Medicine and worked in research as a postdoctoral fellow under Robert Lefkowitz at Duke University, where he started work on cloning the β2-adrenergic receptor. Professor Kobilka was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator from 1987-2003 and moved to Stanford in 1989. He is best known for his research on the structure and activity of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs); in particular, work from Kobilka's laboratory determined the molecular structure of the β2-adrenergic receptor. GPCRs are important targets for pharmaceutical therapeutics, but notoriously difficult to work with in X-ray crystallography. The β2-adrenergic receptor structure was soon followed by the determination of the molecular structure of several other G-protein coupled receptors. Professor Kobilka is the 1994 recipient of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology. His GPCR structure work was, in part, supported by the 2004 Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. He received the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Robert Lefkowitz for his work on G protein-coupled receptors.