The present invention is directed to a method of preparing a water-soluble variant of a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR), the method comprising replacing residues leucine (L), isoleucine (I), valine (V), and phenylalanine (F) in hydrophilic surface α-helical positions b, c, and f but not positions a, d, e, and g within the 7-transmembrane α-helical domain of the GPCR with glutamine (Q), threonine (T), threonine (T), and tyrosine (Y), respectively.