Figure 2.

Development of human therapeutics is by necessity built upon many experimental foundations. GPCR interactions with other proteins, ligands, or the cell membrane are best identified in isolation and then combined to form a holistic snapshot of receptor behavior. Animal models (manuscript section §3.1) show how tissues, or whole organisms, may react to treatment, but require substantial resources and studies are typically directed by results from cell cultures (§3.2). Therapeutic effects may be even more intensively examined through structural analysis (§3.3), as well as biophysical studies of protein in isolation in liposomes, micelles, or other biomimetic systems (§3.4-3.5). Finally, molecular dynamics and docking studies (§3.6) are used to study the movements of individual receptors. The collection of data from all of these experiments is required for the development of drugs that more specifically treat a condition, while minimizing the risk of adverse effects.