Gavin is interested in the molecular basis of cellular recognition events. The goals of his research are to obtain a mechanistic understanding of how cells interact both within our own bodies and with pathogens. Ultimately, this knowledge will inform the rational design of intervention strategies for the treatment and prevention of both genetic and infectious diseases.Extracellular protein interactions made by membrane proteins are crucial to biological processes, and because their easy accessibility, are excellent drug targets. Despite their important roles, identifying extracellular binding events can be challenging because cell surface proteins are embedded in greasy membranes and interactions often have low affinities. Gavin's research has focused on taking large-scale systematic approaches to identify novel receptor-ligand pairs that initiate intercellular signalling. His laboratory has developed new methods based on detecting direct binding events within high-quality curated protein libraries representing the surface receptor repertoire of all human cells. Using these approaches many novel receptor-ligand pairs have been discovered including Juno-Izumo, which is essential for mammalian sperm-egg recognition, and RH5-basigin that is required for the invasion of blood cells by the malaria parasite.The protein libraries compiled by Gavin’s laboratory are very useful for identifying new targets for therapeutic antibody-based drugs and profiling their specificity and off-target binding effects.