One Molecule, Two Opioid Receptors - Joseph Kim

Dr. Joseph Kim solved cryo-EM structures of mu and kappa opioid receptors bound to the same small molecule — and found it does something different at each one. In this conversation, Dr. Kim walks through his transition from cryo-electron tomography to GPCR structural biology in Ashish Manglik's lab at UCSF, the strategy behind solving inactive-state receptor structures, and why his favorite GPCR — the galanin receptor — has resisted every small-molecule screen thrown at it. Key takeaways: How one molecule acts as an antagonist at mu and an inverse agonist at kappa Why the galanin receptor's peptide binding mode blocks conventional drug discovery What it takes to switch fields with no prior biochemistry training How building tools on "vanilla" GPCRs prepares you for exotic targets 🔬 Dr. GPCR Ecosystem: 💰 Membership & Pricing: 📰 Weekly News:

You can listen to One Molecule, Two Opioid Receptors - Joseph Kim online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

One Molecule, Two Opioid Receptors - Joseph Kim is an episode from Dr. GPCR Podcast by Dr. Yamina Berchiche.

This episode is 00:50:28 long.

This episode was published on Apr 29, 2026.

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