Professor Sun Jinpeng and Professor Yu Xiao from the School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shandong University (SDU) published two articles titled "Structural basis for the tethered peptide activation of adhesion GPCRs" and "Tethered peptide activation mechanism of the adhesion GPCR ADGRG2 and ADGRG4" in Nature on April 13.

Their articles showed the research results of adhesion GPCR, explained the aGPCR Tethered Activation Mechanism, and proposed the "Finger Model" guide the rational design of agonists and antagonists.

Led by Professor Sun, the first research results were completed together with Professor Xu Huaqiang from the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Professor Ines Liebscher's team from the Rudolf Schönheimer Institute in Germany.

Professor Sun and Professor Yu headed the second study in which they collaborated with Kong Liangliang's team from the National Center for Protein Science and Professor Zhang Lei's team from Xi'an Jiaotong University.

In terms of topic creation and article writing, both studies received guidance and support from Professor Feng Shiqing of SDU's Qilu Hospital and Professor Wang Chuanxin of the Second Hospital of Shandong University.