Jochen Balbach
Prof. Jochen Balbach
Institute for Physics/Biophysics
Betty-Heimann-Straße 7
06120 Halle (Saale)
phone: +49 (0) 345-55 28550
jochen.balbach@physik.uni-halle.de
Heike Böcker
PhD student
Structural investigations of the G-protein coupled PTH-receptor
G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) play an essential role in the signal transduction across membranes. Their importance is clearly demonstrated by the fact that around 50 % of currently used drugs are supposed to interact with GPCRs. One of these targets is the receptors for parathyroid hormone (PTH). The PTH receptor 1 (PTHR-1) is involved in regulation of blood calcium and phosphate levels as well as in bone metabolism. The functional role of PTH receptor 2 is less clear. Further reported effectors of the PTH receptors are the PTH related peptide PTHrP and the tuberoinfundibular peptide TIP. The native hormone PTH is already used as a drug in the treatment of osteoporosis, but unfortunately it is rapidly degraded due to its peptide character. By designing non-peptide analogs of PTH the therapy could become much more efficient in terms of longer half-lives of the drug or reduced side-effects.
The goal of the project is to gain a molecular understanding of PTHR activation by various peptides binding at the extra cellular part of the receptor. We will employ mainly high resolution NMR spectroscopy for these structural investigations.
