G Protein-coupled Receptors as Drug Targets: Novel Insights and New Approaches

Paul Insel, MD, FAPS, is distinguished professor emeritus of pharmacology and medicine at the University of California, San Diego. His areas of research include G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR), heterotrimeric G proteins and G-protein-regulated effectors and targets. Insel’s current work emphasizes GPCR expression by individual cell types and the contribution of specific GPCRs to cellular responses, in particular, in cells (especially cancer cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts) in the tumor microenvironment.

Kathleen Caron, PhD, is a professor and chair of the Department of Cell Biology and Physiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned a PhD in cell biology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, where her work focused on developing mouse models of sex determination. Caron completed postdoctoral training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, devising cutting-edge gene targeting strategies. Her research uses gene targeting strategies to model human vascular disease.

Nikoleta “Nina” Tsvetanova, PhD, is an assistant professor and a Whitehead Scholar at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She obtained her PhD from Stanford University in California and performed postdoctoral work at the University of California San Francisco. The Tsvetanova Lab in Duke University School of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology explores the biochemical and spatial regulation of GPCR signaling networks and their impact on physiology.