Most receptors come with a history. Remulate came with a name — and almost nothing else. Dr. Beatriz Redondo, group leader at the University of Leipzig, has spent the last nine years building the first systematic characterization of adhesion GPCRs in Drosophila, including three receptors so new they were named after condiments. What she's constructing isn't just a receptor profile — it's a method for doing discovery when the tools don't exist yet.

Dr. Redondo uses CRISPR, genetic tagging, and in vivo behavioral assays to place and characterize adhesion GPCRs in a system where generations turn over in weeks. Her work on remulate — a neuronal adhesion GPCR with a human ortholog linked to vascular malformations and blood-brain barrier dysfunction — is among the first of its kind in any organism.

Key takeaways:

• Why Drosophila remains a productive system for receptor discovery in the genomics era
• How CRISPR and epitope tagging replace antibody-based tools for understudied GPCRs
• What nocifensive behavior in larvae reveals about remulate's neuronal function
• How basic science in an insect model connects to vertebrate disease biology
• What it looks like to characterize a receptor from scratch — with no prior literature to build on

Dr. GPCR University — live and on-demand courses for scientists working on real discovery problems: https://www.ecosystem.drgpcr.com/gpcr-university

This episode is supported by Eurofins DiscoverX and GeneTex: https://www.ecosystem.drgpcr.com/eurofins-discoverx | https://www.ecosystem.drgpcr.com/genetex