As the population grows older the emphasis on improved treatments of age-related conditions is becoming stronger. One such condition is congestive heart failure which is currently being diagnosed in 400,000 patients per year in the US alone. Half of these patients die within 5 years due to this condition or related diseases explaining why almost 100 molecules are in development or on the market for this indication. Traditionally associated with pregnancy, relaxin levels have recently been shown to be increased as a compensatory mechanism during congestive heart failure. Up until recently however the failure to identify relaxin receptors has made exploitation of this target difficult. Recently this problem has been overcome by US based researchers. These researchers have demonstrated that cells transfected with two orphan receptor, LGR7 and LGR8 can be activated by relaxin. The two receptors were expressed by a number of organs including cardiovascular tissue. A stable cell line and an antagonist of LGR7 has been developed with the later being shown to delay labor in treated mice. This finding is of use in it's own right given the problems associated with pre-term delivery. However, these and similar tools can also be used to develop novel treatments for the even more serious problem of cardiovascular disease and conditions associated with menopause. Collaboration with this group should facilitate the development of appropriate assays required to expedite such development.