We are particularly interested in orphan receptors—that is, GPCRs whose endogenous ligands are as yet unknown. Our goal is to deorphanize receptors and identify additional agonists and antagonists in addition to the endogenous ligands. Only by understanding these ligands we can elucidate the physiological role of orphan receptors. Furthermore, we are interested in investigating regulatory mechanisms related to GPCR signal transduction.We employ a wide range of methods: Our focus is on molecular biology (including PCR, mutagenesis, cloning, and real-time PCR) and pharmacological studies (including radioligand binding assays and functional assays such as cAMP accumulation assays, calcium ion mobilization assays, and beta-arrestin assays).