Discovery
Historically, receptors were discovered by using ligands to "fish" for their receptors. Hence by definition, these receptors were not orphans. However with modern molecular biology techniques such as screening of cDNA libraries, it becomes possible to identify related receptors based on sequence similarity to known receptors without knowing what their ligands are.
Read more about this topic: Orphan Receptor
Famous quotes containing the word discovery:
“The discovery of the North Pole is one of those realities which could not be avoided. It is the wages which human perseverance pays itself when it thinks that something is taking too long. The world needed a discoverer of the North Pole, and in all areas of social activity, merit was less important here than opportunity.”
—Karl Kraus (1874–1936)
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—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
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—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)