When I first interviewed Brian Kobilka, MD, winner of the 2012
Nobel Prize for Chemistry in October, I was struck by an off-
hand comment about his motivation for his near-obsessive two-
decades long research quest to uncover the workings of GPCRs, or
G-protein-coupled receptors, which serve as one of the main
methods of molecular communication within the body. The
research, which it’s believed will lead to the creation of new
drugs for clinical care, was not originally done for this
purpose. It was motivated by simple scientific curiosity – the
kind that often leads to amazing discoveries that help cure
suffering or save lives. Initially, Kobilka just really wanted
to know how it worked. In a story published in today’s Inside
Stanford Medicine, I describe the success of research based on
scientific curiosity in leading to clinical care breakthroughs.
The story describes the 30-year history of scientific
breakthroughs that led to the approval of a new drug called
vismodegib that is used to treat inoperable basa