Steven E. Mansoor, M.D. Ph.D. - Our research interests are in the structure and function of proteins, especially complex cell surface receptors. What is it about receptor structure that allows discrimination of one ligand from another? Why is an empty receptor unable to signal and how does the receptor structure change upon ligand binding and subsequent activation to initiate cell signaling? The structure/function paradigm of proteins sits at the heart of these questions. This paradigm is more than just intellectually and scientifically interesting – it is fundamentally important to pharmacology and thus for a majority of medicines used daily to treat patients with cardiovascular disease. Understanding the structure of drug targets and how ligands influence that structure allows for the rational design of small molecule pharmaceuticals, making them more potent, more efficacious and with less side effects. The overarching goals of our research are to use techniques in structural biology (X-ray crystallography and single particle cryo electron microscopy) and techniques in electrophysiology to study the molecular structure, function and signaling of ion channels and G-protein coupled receptors to identify and develop novel, high-affinity, subtype-selective small molecule agonists and antagonists for the treatment of cardiovascular conditions such as angina, hypertension and platelet aggregation.