My research sits at the intersection of synthetic pharmacology, protein engineering, and chemical biology to create programmable control over cellular signaling with direct implications for drug discovery, with a central focus on GPCR pharmacology.

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs)—the largest and most diverse family of cell surface receptors in humans—are expressed in virtually every cell and tissue in the human body. These receptors regulate many physiologic and pathophysiologic processes by responding to diverse extracellular signals, including proteins, peptides, small molecules, lipids, light, and mechanical force. Ligand binding induces a conformational change in the GPCR that, in turn, activates heterotrimeric G proteins and downstream intracellular signaling cascades.

Decades of GPCR drug discovery efforts have produced clinically approved drugs for a wide range of diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative disease, and obesity. Despite the success in pharmacologically targeting GPCRs, we still cannot precisely control GPCR activity, either at the receptor or ligand levels. Engineering efforts for GPCRs lag behind other receptor classes that have been effectively used to create synthetic receptor systems and cell therapies capable of mediating context-dependent cellular responses. Furthermore, we still lack effective methods for developing ligands that selectively activate specific GPCR signaling pathways (biased ligands).

My research program seeks to address these challenges. My long-term goals are to unravel the molecular and cellular mechanisms of GPCRs in health and disease (with a focus on cancer/immunology) and develop technologies that are widely adopted across fields and disciplines to broadly impact biological and therapeutic research.

Nick obtained a BS in Genetics and Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During his undergraduate career, he trained with Dr. Paul Sondel, where he worked on preclinical testing of novel immunotherapeutic agents for the treatment of neuroblastoma. He obtained a PhD in Biomedical Science with Dr. Pradipta Ghosh, elucidating the structural basis of non-canonical G protein activation by a novel protein family of Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Modulators (GEMs). As a Postdoctoral Researcher with Professor Alice Ting at Stanford University, his research focused on developing a new system for programmable and user-controlled cellular behaviors. Nick will be starting his independent lab at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy in January 2026.

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