Research Keywords (5-6 keywords):
- Chemical Biology
- Proteases
- Imaging
- Cancer
- Cathepsins
Research Highlights: (5 to 6 sentences)
Research in the Blum lab covers a wide range of topics, combining techniques from chemistry and biology. One main area of focus is proteases, enzymes that break down proteins. These enzymes are found throughout the body and are involved in almost all cell functions. They also play a big role in various diseases.
Another key part of our work is creating new chemical tools and probes that can track the activity of specific proteases. We make these probes using both solid and solution chemistry methods. These tools can be used to study proteases in different settings, in tissue cultures, in living animals, and even in human samples. This helps us perform non-invasive imaging and molecular imaging to study diseases.
Our research is particularly interested in using our probes to explore how certain proteases are involved in different health conditions, including various diseases. Another important part of our work is developing theranostic probes, which can both diagnose and treat diseases.