The tiny protein pulling strings behind a third of all medicines

A third of all medicines work through GPCRs, and Marcus Saarinen's team at Stockholm's Karolinska Institutet just found the volume knob. The small protein p11 latches onto around two dozen previously unknown receptors and amplifies their signals — the team proved it across 211 human receptors in work published in Science Advances. Tune p11, and tomorrow's drugs for chronic pain, inflammation and depression could get far more precise.