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The Gerard laboratory has focused extensively on G protein coupled receptors, which play an essential role in activating white blood cells. Many of these receptors and ligands--the molecules that bind to them--have come to be appreciated as a bridge between innate and acquired immunity, as well as vital to the acute inflammatory response.
The bulk of the group's focus over the past decade has been on elucidating the G protein coupled receptors for anaphylatoxins C5a and C3a--molecules that mediate inflammatory responses--as well as those for the chemokine superfamily--the chemical messengers of the immune system. Their work has moved from cloning the receptors to disrupting receptor genes in order to probe the role of these receptors in the body.
Along the way, the lab was the first to show how one pathogen, invasive pneumococcus, exploits the platetelet activating factor receptor to gain access to cells. That discovery was followed by collaborative work defining the chemokine receptors involved as HIV-1 co-receptors.
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