Researchers from Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1423 – Structural Dynamics of GPCR Activation and Signaling – at Leipzig University and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg have discovered in a joint project how unstructured segments of surface proteins regulate the biological function of a cell. Their study, recently published in the renowned journal Nature Communications, sheds new light on the interplay between G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) – located in the membranes of nearly all body cells – the messengers that activate them, and the signalling processes within a target cell. This interplay has a major role in drug discovery.