Research Blog
Mechanisms and Pharmacology
How peptides act at their targets: receptor binding, cell signaling assays, structure-activity relationships and the affinity and potency measures used to compare compounds.
MechanismsPhoto: kaibara87 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Mechanisms and Pharmacology Growth Hormone Secretagogues: GHRH Analogues and Ghrelin Mimetics
How GHRH analogues and ghrelin receptor agonists differ in structure, receptor pharmacology and signaling, and how pituitary cell assays are used to study them.
DODaniel Okafor~5 min read
MechanismsPhoto: kaibara87 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Mechanisms and Pharmacology What Is GLP-1? Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Biology for Researchers
Glucagon-like peptide-1 from gene to receptor: proglucagon processing, GLP-1R signalling, why the native peptide is short-lived and how analogues fix that.
DODaniel Okafor~6 min read
MechanismsPhoto: Habin Zhang / Wikimedia Commons
Mechanisms and Pharmacology Retatrutide vs Tirzepatide vs Semaglutide: Receptor Pharmacology Compared
Mono, dual and triple agonists side by side: which receptors each peptide activates, how the structures differ, and how to compare them fairly in cell assays.
DODaniel Okafor~4 min read
MechanismsPhoto: Lilly_M / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Mechanisms and Pharmacology Cell Signaling Assays in Peptide Research
How receptor activation becomes a measurable signal, and the second-messenger, reporter and phosphorylation assays peptide researchers use to read it.
DODaniel Okafor~6 min read
MechanismsPhoto: Lilly_M / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Mechanisms and Pharmacology Structure-Activity Relationships (SAR) in Peptides
How changes to a peptide's sequence change its activity and stability, from alanine scanning to the albumin-binding DAC modification of CJC-1295.
DODaniel Okafor~6 min read
MechanismsPhoto: Habin Zhang / Wikimedia Commons
Mechanisms and Pharmacology Binding Affinity Explained: Kd, Ki, IC50 and EC50
What Kd, Ki, IC50 and EC50 actually measure, why affinity is not potency, and how to compare peptides acting at more than one receptor.
DODaniel Okafor~5 min read
MechanismsPhoto: kaibara87 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Mechanisms and Pharmacology Peptide-Receptor Interactions: A Primer
How peptides bind and activate receptors, using GLP-1R and the class B1 GPCRs as a worked example of affinity, efficacy and agonism.
DODaniel Okafor~6 min read
Educational content for research use only. Not for human consumption. Nothing here is medical advice or a claim about safety or efficacy.