Visiting Researcher: Bianca Plouffe, University of Montreal
Title: GPCR, G protein and β-arrestin: three dancers dancing together in the endosome
Monday 4th June, 15:00, C1052, Medical School, University of Nottingham
Host: Steve Hill (COMPARE)
Biography: Dr Bianca Plouffe is an early career researcher from the University of Montreal, who has developed a niche area of research in the field of signaling from intracellular GPCRs in endosomes. She has worked with some of the leading GPCR groups in the world. Dr Plouffe’s research is based on the innovative new concept that G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) can continue to signal following receptor internalization into cellular compartments called endosomes, or via the trans-Golgi network adjacent to the nucleus. Through a collaboration with Professors Michel Bouvier (Montreal), Georgios Skiniotis (Stanford) and Nobel Laureate Bob Lefkowitz (Duke), she observed that β-arrestin, a protein rapidly recruited to the plasma membrane and involved in GPCR signaling arrest (by promoting G protein uncoupling and receptor internalization) was instead promoting Gαs activation and concomitant cAMP production in endosomes upon internalization of a specific class (Class B e.g. Vasopressin-2 receptor) of GPCRs. Moreover, she discovered that both Gαs and β-arrestin bind to the vasopressin-2 receptor (V2R) when Gαs is activated in endosomes, forming a complex they called a “megaplex”.