Welcome to the Devi Lab

The studies in Dr. Lakshmi Devi’s laboratory are aimed at unraveling the molecular mechanisms of signal transduction, trafficking and regulation mediated by G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). The efforts in Dr. Devi’s lab are concentrated in three areas of research: (i) exploring the functional implications of opioid receptor interactions in both physiology and disease; (ii) isolating and identifying new neuropeptides (e.g. BigLEN) and characterize their function and their endogenous receptors;and (iii) deorphanizing GPCRs (e.g GPR171) that play a role in homeostatic functions such as feeding or fear response and identifying small molecule ligands that could be developed as selective therapeutics in pathologies involving the deorphanized receptor.