Dr. Brömme’s Research
Our Lab
Our lab is located in the Life Sciences Centre, and is part of the Centre for Blood Research. We are affiliated with the Chemical Biology of Disease group.
Our Purpose
Many human diseases are characterized by an excessive proteolytic degradation of proteins of the extracellular matrix (e.g., bone and cartilage diseases, atherosclerosis, destructive lung diseases, cancer) or by an inappropriate proteolytic processing of proteins leading to auto-immune diseases and disorders caused by regulatory defects. Our laboratory is leading in the identification of novel therapeutic targets among intracellular lysosomal proteases and is focused on the role of these proteases in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis, atherosclerosis and certain forms of immune disorders. Our aim is to understand the role of lysosomal proteases in health and disease which may lead to new therapeutic approaches to treat these illnesses. To achieve our objective, we exploit an interdisciplinary approach which includes methods of molecular biology, enzymology, crystallography, histology, animal models and a wide range of collaborations with clinical and biotech institutions.
Current Research Topics
- Atherosclerosis
- Antigen Presentation and Autoimmune Disease
- Cathepsin K and Collagen Degradation
- Bone and Joint Diseases
- Inhibitor Identification
- Novel Cathepsins
Principal Investigator
Post-Doctoral Fellows
- Andrey Samokhin, Ph.D.
- Susan Wilson, Ph.D.
- Dongwei Zhang, Ph.D.
- Adeleke Aguda, Ph.D.
Visiting Scholars
- Ariadna Costa Mugica, Ph.D. Student
Graduate Students
- Xin Du, M.Sc. Student
- Natasha Kruglyak, M.Sc Student
- Vincent Lavallee, M.Sc. Student
- Boram Nho, M.Sc. Student
Technicians
- Jadwiga Kaleta, M.Sc.
- Saadat Hashamiyan, MLT
- Paul Lythgo, B.Sc.
Undergraduate Students
- Thomas Leung, B.Sc. (Hons)
- Horace Wei, B.Sc. (Hons)
- Chun Mei Li
- Frances Lin
- Kanwaljit Gill
Past Members
- Asami Abe, Ph.D.
- Marcio Alves, Ph.D.
- Yoshiyuki Asuda, Ph.D.
- Nilana Barros (Visiting Scholar)
- Brent Chang, Undergraduate
- Kathrin Gans (Visiting Scholar)
- Martin Linke, Ph.D.
- Claudia Luther (Visiting Scholar)
- Luciano Puzer, Ph.D.
- Jovy Rosario, Master’s Student
- Jana Selent, Ph.D.
- Richele Severino, (Visiting Scholar)
- Terri Sun (Undergraduate Student)
- Jianfang Wu, M.Sc.
- David Lee, Co-Op Student
- Nathan Moens, Volunteer
- Raymond Pan, Co-Op Student
- Sandy Lu, Volunteer
- Linda Zhang, Volunteer
- Virginia Zhao, Volunteer
- Nelson Chen, M.Sc.
- Mark Tao, Co-Op Student
- Lina Hu, Volunteer
- Alexander Geldman, Co-Op Student
- Nelson Leung, B.Sc.