Description:

The Department of Pharmacology is pleased to present a special seminar by the nominated Julius B. Kahn Visiting Professor.

Mark Von Zastrow, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and of Cellular & Molecular Pharmacology, UCSF

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), nature's largest and most versatile family of signaling receptors, control essentially every physiological process and are important drug targets. Our group investigates how GPCRs operate in individual cells that we view as elemental 'building blocks' of tissues and physiology. We are particular interested in the cell biology of GPCRs in neurons and the problem of neuromodulation. I will briefly review present concepts of GPCR signaling and membrane traffic in mammalian cells. Then I will discuss present and ongoing studies into how GPCRs initiate signaling via G proteins after endocytosis, and how GPCRs initiate distinct cellular effects via arrestins.