The doctoral student Jan Hendrik Voß (working group of Prof. Dr. Christa E. Müller) was awarded with a travel grant from the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds for a research stay at the University of Montreal. In the working group of Prof. Michel Bouvier, he will learn novel techniques to detect and quantify intracellular signaling responses of G protein-coupled receptors. These receptors sit on the surface of cells and sense chemicals on the outside of the cells. In the body, they play a major role in a number of vital processes, such as hormone response, smell, and even vision. In the cell, receptors mediate their response via so called G proteins, which act similar to a toggle switch. As G protein-coupled receptors are targeted by approximately a third of marketed drugs, it is very important to identify the G proteins, through which they signal in the cells, to gain new insights on receptor physiology and drug action. The technique developed in the laboratory of Prof. Bouvier is based on novel biosensors – engineered proteins that can monitor the activation of several G protein pathways, when a receptor is activated. The technology will be implemented at the laboratory of Prof. Christa E. Müller at the University of Bonn to characterize receptors, whose signaling is not well understood yet, and to investigate the biological effects of receptor-activating molecules synthesized in our laboratory.
In his PhD project, Jan Hendrik Voß researches the detailed molecular mechanism of natural compounds, which act as G protein inhibitors. Results from his research were recently published in the journal Pharmacological Research (Unraveling binding mechanism and kinetics of macrocyclic Gαq protein inhibitors).