Readers of the top-ranked scientific journals Science and Nature
might have noticed a recent wave of articles, most recently in
the July 13, 2012 issue of Science, with deep importance for
biology and medicine. These papers, all published this year by
collaborations headed by the Scripps Research Institute
laboratory of Professor Raymond Stevens, illuminate a large and
medically important family of proteins called G protein-coupled
receptors (GPCRs). GPCRs sit in the cell membrane and sense
various molecules outside the cell, including odors, hormones,
neurotransmitters, and light. After binding these molecules,
GPCRs trigger a specific response inside the cell. Many drugs,
including allergy and heart medication and drugs for Parkinson's
and Huntington's disease, target these proteins. This year, a
paper published January 19 (Liu et al., Science, 335, 1106) was
quickly followed by related publications on the crystal
structures of a lipid GPCR (Hanson et al., Science, 335, 851,
February 17), the kappa opioid r