Magdalena Scharf is the Molecular Pharmacology Highlighted Trainee Author for the December 2019 issue. Ms. Scharf is a pre-doctoral trainee at Philipps-University in Marburg, Germany.  Her mentor is Professor Peter Kolb. The Molecular Pharmacology article that earned her selection as a Highlighted Trainee Author is titled “Comparative Docking to Distinct G Protein-Coupled Receptor Conformations Exclusively Yields Ligands with Agonist Efficacy” and is available at https://doi.org/10.1124/mol.119.117515.

Ms. Scharf’s current research involves the beta-2-adrenergic receptor as well as one other GPCR and GPCR-related targets, and the prediction of novel ligands to modulate their function. She works in an interdisciplinary way in the fields of chemoinformatics and pharmacology. Her focus is on GPCRs, their interactions with small molecules, and how small molecules can modulate different signaling pathways. Using chemoinformatic tools such as docking calculations, Ms. Scharf predicts novel ligands for different GPCRs and how they might influence signaling pathways. She then characterizes the pharmacological properties of these ligands in cell-based assays.

The anticipated impact of Ms. Scharf’s research is on drug discovery for GPCRs, one of the most important drug target classes. Understanding how GPCR signaling works and the deeper knowledge of being able to predict the impact of a small molecule on signaling can lead to better and safer drugs.

When not in the lab, Ms. Scharf enjoys training in the martial art Capoeira, traveling, and reading.