Café Scientifique Vancouver is proud to present Dr. Georgina Butler from the Centre for Blood Research at UBC presenting “From tadpole tails to diagnosing disease – the evolution of protease research”.

Proteases are enzymes that cut other proteins. Humans have 560 different proteases – why so many? what are they doing? We know that too much protease activity can be detrimental in diseases such as cancer and arthritis, but failed efforts to stop cancer spread by blocking proteases has contributed to the realization that some cuts are essential. In the era of “big data”, at UBC we have developed new techniques (degradomics) to study proteases on a global scale to determine what they really do in health and disease. Hopefully this information will enable us to identify new drug targets as well as novel biomarkers to diagnose or monitor disease.

Georgina’s bio: “I completed my undergraduate degree in Biochemistry (with Studies in Italy) at the University of Kent at Canterbury, and my PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Leicester in the UK. I came to UBC as a Wellcome Trust Travelling Fellow in 1999 for 2 years. Still here, I am a Research Associate at the Centre for Blood Research and in Oral, Biological and Medical Sciences at UBC, where I study novel roles of proteases in health and disease.”