Patent ID: 7488583

Claim:
A method of screening a candidate drug, a compound library or a biological extract to identify activators or inhibitors of G-protein-coupled receptors or G-protein-coupled pathways using fluorescent protein complementation assays, said method comprising the steps of: (A) selecting a fluorescent protein reporter molecule; (B) effecting fragmentation of said fluorescent protein reporter molecule such that said fragmentation results in reversible loss of reporter function; (C) fusing or attaching fragments of said fluorescent protein reporter molecule separately to interacting protein molecules associated with G-protein-coupled receptors or G-protein- coupled pathways; (D) transfecting cells with nucleic acid constructs coding for the products of step (C); (E) testing the effects of said candidate drug, compound library, or biological extract on the receptor or pathway of interest by contacting said cells as defined in step (D) with said candidate drug, compound library or biological extract; and (F) measuring and/or detecting the fluorescence resulting from the reassociation of the reporter fragments which had been fused to the interacting proteins, to identify specific agents that activate or inhibit the receptor or pathway of interest.