Researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin have been studying two proteins that play a vital role in many bodily processes. The aim of the research was to establish how G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and arrestin form complexes. The human GPCR family consists of nearly one thousand different types of membrane proteins, with the majority involved in sensory and neuronal processes. Results from this research, which has been published in the current issue of the journal Nature Communications, identify a previously unknown binding element critical to the arrestin – GPCR interaction.