Abstract/Summary

Integral membrane proteins embedded in the plasma membrane are the gatekeepers of cell activity because they precisely regulate the transfer of information in a cellular context. The three major classes of integral membrane proteins (namely receptors, transporters and ion channels) are critically involved in diverse cellular and physiological processes in any given organism. Membrane proteins constitute one of the more prominent classes of targets for existing drugs, and they continue to be attractive targets for novel drug discovery for a broad spectrum of human disorders and pathological conditions. Therefore, understanding the mechanistic basis of activation and regulatory para- digms of these molecules represents an important frontier in modern biology. Against this backdrop, a focused symposium was organized at the Pharmacology 2019 conference in Edinburgh and that meeting sparked the idea for a thematic issue in the British Journal of Pharma- cology focussing on Structure Guided Pharmacology of Membrane Proteins. This thematic issue includes a set of review and research articles covering diverse aspects of the structure and function of distinct types of membrane proteins (including GPCRs, ion channels and catalytic receptors).