University of Nottingham
  
Location
C1052 Medical School QMC, University of Nottingham
Date(s)
Monday 4th June 2018 (15:00-16:00)
Contact
Chris McGrath - Centre of Membrane Proteins and Receptors, compare@birmingham-nottingham.ac.uk
Description

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”.

In Partnership: The Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham


University of Birmingham
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Birmingham
B15 2TT

Telephone: +44 (0)121 414 3974
info@birmingham-nottingham.ac.uk

The University of Nottingham
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Nottingham
NG7 2RD

Telephone: +44 (0)115 846 7554
info@birmingham-nottingham.ac.uk