Welcome to the Smrcka Lab
Our laboratory studies mechanisms for cellular communication via G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). The GPCR superfamily includes receptors for adrenaline, serotonin, acetylcholine taste molecules, smell, and even light! They are the largest family of cell surface receptors and 30-40% of marketed drugs target GPCRs. Our laboratory uses a wide variety of methods to study the involvement of these receptors in physiology and disease. We provide a dynamic environment where trainees can gain experience in a wide repertoire of methods applied to important biological problems. Learn more »
THE LATEST:
September 2019: Congratulations Naincy for winning a “Best Poster” award at the Department of Pharmacology retreat.
August 2019: Craig and Wei’s cofirst author paper was published in eLife “Golgi localized b-adrenergic receptors stimulate Golgi PI4P hydrolysis by PLCe to regulate cardiac hypertrophy”
July 2019: Naincy was awarded the Pharmacology Centennial Fund Predoctoral Fellowship.
June 2019: Hoa was awarded the 2019 Upjohn Postdoctoral Fellowship.
April 2019: Tyler successfully passed his qualifying exam. Congratulations!
November 2018: Adrian’s paper “Targeting GPCR signaling by blocking G proteins” was published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.
September 2018: Rafael Gil de Rubio’s paper “Phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate is a major source of GPCR-stimulated phosphoinositide production” was published in Science Signaling.
July 2018: Wenhui Wei successfully defended her Masters Thesis in Pharmacology.
July 2018: Naincy Chandan received a Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Entrepeneurship from the UM Office of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies.
July 2018: Naincy Chandan was awarded the “Benedict and Diana Lucchesi Lucchesi Pre-doctoral Fellowship” in the UM Department of Pharmacology.
June 2018: Craig Nash’s paper “Compartmentalized cyclic nucleotides have opposing effects on regulation of hypertrophic phospholipase Cε signaling in cardiac myocytes” was published in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology.
