Credit: Yekaterina Kadyshevskaya/University of Southern California
Using SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source, researchers mapped the shape of the EP3 receptor, one of the main triggers of labor in pregnant women. It’s shown here as tangles of teal coils; misoprostol, a drug known to stop postpartum bleeding in pregnant women, is shown as a yellow and red molecule that has bound into a pocket within the receptor.