Structure and function studies on the Calcitonin Receptor, a Class B1 GPCR

This thesis examines four common natural variants of the calcitonin receptor (CTR), a GPCR involved in bone remodelling and calcium homeostasis, confirming that receptor splicing can change CTR function, and revealing that two common polymorphism can also influence CTR signalling. Additionally, the CTR was observed to constitutively internalise in different cell systems. The use of different agonists, some of which biased, has allowed to start exploring the mechanistic basis of how ligands control CTR function, showing that different ligands distinctly activate the CTR through unique interactions with the receptor, and that different pathways are controlled by distinct portions of the receptor.