Cellular response to opioids

Signaling receptors sit at the interface of chemistry and biology: detecting the presence of specific small molecules and translating that information into a biological response. We study this biology at its source: individual cells and networks of proteins within these cells which detect and respond to the presence of small molecules. Our efforts focus on a family of receptors for opioid molecules. We are particularly interested in the complex pharmacology of synthetic opioids, which show distinct signaling profiles when compared to the natural opioid peptides produced by the human body.  

We are presently focusing on:

•How do structurally distinct opioids change the cellular proteins and signaling pathways downstream of receptor activation?

•How does regulation of opioids receptors change between ligands?

Profiling the diversity of agonist-selective effects on the proximal proteome environment of G protein-coupled receptors

Palacco BJ#, Lobingier BT#, Blythe EE, Abreu N, Khare P, Howard MK, Gonzalez-Herandez A, Xu J, Li Q, Novy B, Ning Z, Schoichet B, Levitz J, Korean N, von Zastrow M, Huttenhain R (# equal contributors) Nature Chemical Biology, 2024