Christopher Garcia is interested in cell surface receptors and their ligands. Using a range of methodologies, Garcia and his team investigate how ligand recognition and signaling coordinate with the physiology of the cell to determine cell function and fate. In addition to understanding basic aspects of receptor signaling and structural biology, the team is also interested in the creation of novel receptor ligands using protein engineering, and “deorphanization,” or matching of newly discovered receptors to their ligands, using proteomics. A major aim of their work is to synthetically leverage natural biological signaling mechanisms as a path to potential therapeutics.
More than two decades of effort went into a project that has now revealed the structure of a crucial signaling molecule, opening the door to new and better drugs for some cancers. A method developed by HHMI investigators sifts through hundreds of millions of potential targets to find a precise cancer beacon. The results may lead to better immunotherapies, which harness the immune system to attack tumors. Three HHMI investigators and two HHMI professors have been elected to membership in the National Academy of Medicine. Thirty years after their discovery, scientists have the first picture of a Wnt protein, a member of a protein family that includes some of the most important regulators of growth and development. Fourteen HHMI scientists are among 84 newly elected members.