Jody Pacalon

The paper identifies amino acids involved in ligand entry and binding to Drosophila Orco using molecular modeling and electrophysiology, revealing a mechanism for ligand translocation and high selectivity.

This study shows that ECL2 in GPCRs is crucial for odorant recognition and promiscuity, enabling virtual screening of ligands with high success.

The paper improves comparative modeling of mammalian bitter-taste receptors (TAS2Rs) by re-aligning sequences and constructing homology models, validated through site-directed mutagenesis and functional assays.

The paper uses machine learning to predict olfactory receptor-odorant pairs and basal activity from sequence data, identifying key residues that determine selectivity and activity.