{"id":177,"date":"2017-04-12T16:28:19","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T16:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/?page_id=177"},"modified":"2026-02-05T17:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:29:12","slug":"projects","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/index.php\/projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">The overall goal of my lab is to understand the roles of compartmentalized, organelle-based signaling and membrane trafficking as two key steps which allow cells to respond to external cues.\u00a0 As the plasma membrane provides a barrier to many hormones and biogenic amines, these external cues act by engaging cell surface receptors. A long held tenet of molecular pharmacology is that for cell surface receptors, signal transduction is plasma membrane delimited and that removing the receptors from the plasma membrane is a mechanism for shutting down signaling.\u00a0 We have recently shown that G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), the largest and most versatile family of plasma membrane receptors, activate G protein-mediated signaling pathways at previously unrecognized internal compartments such as endosomes and the Golgi apparatus. As such, subcellular organization of GPCR-mediated signaling represents a new frontier of spatially organized cellular signaling with broad implications for physiological and pathological processes. We use novel biosensors, sophisticated microscopy, cell biology, pharmacology, and ultimately physiology to study the compartmentalized signaling.<\/h3>\n<h3><strong>On-going Research Projects:<\/strong><br \/>\n1) Exploring the cellular impact of GPCR signaling from internal membranes.<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-801\" src=\"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-23-at-10.26.52\u202fAM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"528\" height=\"388\" srcset=\"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-23-at-10.26.52\u202fAM.png 1307w, https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-23-at-10.26.52\u202fAM-300x221.png 300w, https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-23-at-10.26.52\u202fAM-1024x753.png 1024w, https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-23-at-10.26.52\u202fAM-150x110.png 150w, https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-23-at-10.26.52\u202fAM-768x565.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>2) Unraveling the key mechanisms governing subcellular GPCR activity with a focus on the role of monoamine transporters in regulating neuronal function.<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-800\" src=\"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-23-at-10.23.02\u202fAM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"470\" height=\"625\" srcset=\"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-23-at-10.23.02\u202fAM.png 770w, https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-23-at-10.23.02\u202fAM-226x300.png 226w, https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-23-at-10.23.02\u202fAM-113x150.png 113w, https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-23-at-10.23.02\u202fAM-768x1021.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 470px) 100vw, 470px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>3) Designing spatially targeted small molecules to modulate Subcellular GPCR activity.<\/h3>\n<h3><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-798\" src=\"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-23-at-10.15.46\u202fAM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"509\" height=\"505\" srcset=\"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-23-at-10.15.46\u202fAM.png 1095w, https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-23-at-10.15.46\u202fAM-300x297.png 300w, https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-23-at-10.15.46\u202fAM-1024x1015.png 1024w, https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-23-at-10.15.46\u202fAM-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-23-at-10.15.46\u202fAM-768x761.png 768w, https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-23-at-10.15.46\u202fAM-100x100.png 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 509px) 100vw, 509px\" \/><\/h3>\n<h3>4) Utilizing mouse models to investigate the role of subcellular GPCR signaling in regulating physiological function.<\/h3>\n<h3>5) Developing novel tools to study the roles of GPCR compartmentalized signaling in regulating heart functions in intact zebrafish hearts.<\/h3>\n<h3>Imaging zebrafish heart using\u00a0a cardiac endothelial cell reporter line (flk1:GFP)<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Zebrafish Heart\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/321615476?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"462\" height=\"506\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-510 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2017\/04\/zebrafishheart.001.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2017\/04\/zebrafishheart.001.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2017\/04\/zebrafishheart.001-150x113.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2017\/04\/zebrafishheart.001-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/wp-content-uploads\/2017\/04\/zebrafishheart.001-768x576.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The overall goal of my lab is to understand the roles of compartmentalized, organelle-based signaling and membrane trafficking as two key steps which allow cells to respond to external cues.\u00a0 As the plasma membrane provides a barrier to many hormones and biogenic amines, these external cues act by engaging cell surface receptors. A long held &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/index.php\/projects\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Projects&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-177","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":813,"href":"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/177\/revisions\/813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irannejadlab.ucsf.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}