Research in cell communication system wins 2012 chemistry Nobel

G protein-coupled receptors crucial targets for drugs

Web edition : 6:44 am

Robert Lefkowitz of Duke University in Durham, N.C., and Brian Kobilka of Stanford University will share the 2012 Nobel Prize in chemistry for work on molecules that help cells communicate with the outside world.

The molecules, called G-protein?coupled receptors, sit in a cell's outer membrane and identify hormones, odor molecules and other chemicals, transmitting that information to the inside of the cell.

"They are crucially positioned to regulate virtually every known physiological process in humans," Lefkowitz said in a telephone call with the Nobel committee October 10.

That central role has made G-protein?coupled receptors the target of a wide variety of drugs, the Nobel committee noted.

Working to understand how adrenaline works in the body, Kobilka discovered that proteins that corkscrew through a cell's outer membrane seven times are at the forefront of the process. It later became clear that the adrenaline receptor, light receptors in eye cells and many other proteins in the body have this configuration.

These receptors are also all in close communication with molecules called G proteins. When a receptor latches on to a chemical in the cell's environment, it transmits that information to the G protein, which then acts as a courier to ferry the information to the rest of the cell.

Lefkowitz and Kobilka will share prize money of 8 million Swedish kronor, about $1.2 million.

Found in: Chemistry and Genes & Cells

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/345671/title/Research_in_cell_communication_system_wins_2012_chemistry_Nobel

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