Bethany Anderson

I completed my PhD in 2022 at the University of Melbourne studying the role of cysteine proteases in oral cancer progression. During my Honours in drug discovery biology at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS), I moved towards a protease focus under the guidance of Dr. Laura Edgington-Mitchell. During this time my primary interest was investigating the role of proteases in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) using activity-based probes and murine models to analyse protease activity and disease progression through a range of techniques. I then began my PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Melbourne in the lab of Dr. Laura Edgington-Mitchell. My work has contributed to seven papers including three first author papers and I have presented my work at both national and international conferences. In 2021, I was awarded the Sawyer Medal by the Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology at the University of Melbourne. I am now a research fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology in the lab of Dr. Laura Edgington-Mitchell, studying the role of proteases in disease with a particular focus on oral cancer progression. We are using methods including animal models, activity-based probe analysis, CRISPR knockout and knock-in, immunofluorescence microscopy, histology and other biochemical and cellular assays.