 Many proteins are involved in the process of cell signaling and signal transduction . Some proteins , such as insulin , are extracellular proteins that transmit a signal from the cell in which they were synthesized to other cells in distant tissues . Others are membrane proteins that act as receptors whose main function is to bind a signaling molecule and induce a biochemical response in the cell . Many receptors have a binding site exposed on the cell surface and an <unk> domain within the cell , which may have enzymatic activity or may undergo a conformational change detected by other proteins within the cell . 
