Many original products have been completed or are under development

The virus which expresses the GPCR signaling complex. GPCR is the most important protein family for the recognition of many chemical substances at the cell surface. They are the target of many drugs. At LSBM, we have succeeded in establishing the functional expression of GPCR on the surface of insect baculovirus (BV). Three different kinds of G proteins, α, β, and γ, have also been expressed along with GPCR on baculovirus and created a comlex, the ligand for which can be recognized at 1/100 the concentrations required in other systems.

Ligand binding can be indicated by luminescent insect virus We are developing a virus which will change the range of emitting fluorescence by means of FRET technology. In this system, ligand binding causes the dissociation of the Ga protein from GPCR and binding of Ga to the effector molecule. We are developing a FRET system which operates on the virus surface, and this technology will be a key for the development of GPCR protein chip technology.

An artificial smell sensor. We can detect 10,000 or more odors and have about 500 known odorant GPCRs in our nose. Our brain can recognize a smell from the pattern of signals from these receptors. In LSBM, we have succeeded in the expression of an odorant receptor on an insect virus. We are now developing an artificial smell sensor using all of the 500 known GPCR in insect virus systems.