International collaborative research led by the Stanford University School of Medicine, involving Trinity College Dublin researchers recently published in Nature shows how an important human transmembrane protein functions at a molecular level.  Trinity’s team played an important role in the research by implementing novel, high throughput methods and instrumentation to crystallise the receptor which revealed its structure and function. The findings are significant in that the particular human transmembrane protein known as β2-adrenergic receptor, a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), is the focus of a series of drugs for the treatment of asthma.  This new research on its structure and function has the potential of leading to the development of improved drug therapies read more...