Scientists found a new switch on the pathway behind Ozempic — and it responds

Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy work through a receptor on cells called GLP-1R, with helper proteins called beta-arrestins acting as part of the signalling machinery. A Duke University team from Nobel laureate Robert Lefkowitz's lab, publishing in Nature, has created three drug-like molecules that target the beta-arrestins directly — and in lab experiments they prolonged the receptor's signal. These are research tools, not medicines, and no patient has taken them. But they open a second dial on one of the most important drug pathways in modern medicine, one that might one day be tuned separately from the first.

SDG 9 · Industry, innovation and infrastructure — Mechanism: tech innovation