I obtained my BSc and PhD in Biochemistry from the National University of Ireland, Galway. I pursued my postdoctoral research at UC San Francisco under the guidance of Charles Craik and started my independent research career as an Assistant Professor at UC San Diego in 2015. I received tenure in 2021 and am currently an Associate Professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UC San Diego. My research interests lie in the detection and characterization of proteolytic enzymes that are involved in numerous diseases. In particular, we are interested in understanding the role of proteases in cancer, infectious disease, neurodegenerative disorders and developing inhibitors to target these enzymes. Our core research utilizes a mass-spectrometry based platform technology to quantify protease cleavage of a rationally designed synthetic peptide library. The technology allows us to uncover the global proteolytic activity in complex samples such as biofluids, tissues and cell extracts. Our workflow also includes in-depth proteomic analysis to identify the enzymes. Knowledge of which proteases are functionally active in diseased tissue and not active in healthy tissue allow us to 1) develop inhibitors to inactivate the enzyme function, 2) generate protease-activated imaging agents to locate the enzyme or 3) develop protease-activated drugs to aid in the delivery of toxic compounds to the site of disease. Using this technology, I have uncovered novel proteolytic activities in human breast milk, gastric juice, pancreatic cyst fluid, serum and neutrophil extracts. In addition, our group is highly collaborative and we routinely generate substrate specificity profiles of endo- and exo-peptidases that have been isolated from bacteria, fungi and insects. I am the President of the International Proteolysis Society, organizer of the annual Pacific Coast Protease Workshop and am currently organizing the 2023 ASBMB meeting on Serine Proteases.