Highlights ranged from recall in an after-dinner reminiscence by Humphrey Rang FRS, BPS President-elect, of his Oxford DPhil pioneering work on radio-ligand binding, to the latest technology applied to understanding the role of Beta-arrestin scaffold interactions in modulating receptor activation and contributing to biased ligand agonism.
Beta-arrestin interactions provide new concepts in cell-signalling, new understanding of individual variation in disease activity and severity, and new therapeutic targets, the landmark paper triggering this area published in Science in 1990 by Lefkowitz and colleagues.
Key themes of interest included:
Terry Kenakin, UNC Chapel Hill, on the impact of progress in developments on strategy for drug discovery
Katherina Lorenz, Wurzburg, on upregulation of endogenous RKIP as a strategy to reduce experimental congestive heart failure
Brigitte Kieffer, Illkirch, France, on imaging opiate receptors
Patrick Sexton, Monash, on allosteric modulation at muscarinic & GLP1 receptors
John Scott, Seattle, on kinase anchoring
Manuela Zaccolo, Oxford, on cardiac cGMP-PDE-cAMP cross-talk and on cAMP control in cardiac muscleThomas Frimurer, Copenhagen, on binding pockets for drug discovery leadsLester on nuclear GRK5-HDAC/Sin3A and the heart and on nuclear interactions
The next meeting is already planned - anyone interested in cell signalling: don't miss it!
Contact BPS re future meetings