Schihada Lab

The Schihada lab investigates the molecular mechanisms of signalling in living cells. To this end, we develop optical biosensors that are used in living cell models and enable the real-time measurement of various signalling processes. The focus of our work is on G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and their primary interaction partners, the heterotrimeric G proteins. In particular, we address the question of how the numerical imbalance of human receptors (more than 800 different receptors are encoded in our genome) and G protein subtypes (only 16 different G-alpha subtypes are known in humans) is compensated by the cell to enable receptor-specific cell responses. 

To investigate this central question, we are funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the Emmy Noether Programme.