Dr. Anthony O Donoghue

Biography

Anthony O’Donoghue is an Associate Professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, with a research focus on the detection and characterization of proteolytic enzymes associated with disease. His studies explore proteases found in infectious organisms, cancerous tissues, and immune cells within human biofluids. O'Donoghue employs a technology known as Multiplex Substrate Profiling Mass Spectrometry (MSP-MS) to uncover global proteolytic activity in complex biological samples, having applied this methodology successfully to blood, pancreatic cyst fluid, and gastric juice from cancer cells and microbiomes. His workflow includes proteomic and peptidomic analyses to identify proteases and their endogenous substrates in biological samples. Knowledge of proteases active in diseased tissue compared to healthy tissue allows for the development of inhibitors to inactivate target enzymes, creation of protease-activated imaging agents to locate diseases, and the design of protease-activated drugs to aid the delivery of toxic compounds to disease sites. O’Donoghue leads a highly collaborative research group that generates substrate specificity profiles for various proteases across diverse life forms. He holds a B.S. (2000) and Ph.D. (2005) in Biochemistry from the National University of Ireland, Galway, and has completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. O’Donoghue has received multiple awards including the Bioanalysis Young Investigator Award and served in leadership roles within the International Proteolysis Society.

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