Christopher Overall, PhD, FCAHS, FRSC
Professor Chris Overall was appointed a tier 1 Canada research chair in protease proteomics and systems biology (2001) and a senior fellow of the Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies, Albert-Ludwigs Universität Freiburg, Germany (2010–2013), where he is an honorary professor. He was inducted as a fellow into the Royal Society of Canada in 2018. His 303 papers are influential with an h-index of 102. He is best known for his development of N-terminomic methodology for the identification of protein N and C termini. One application of this is the discovery of protease substrates in vivo, thereby establishing the field of degradomics. He has used these techniques to reveal new roles for proteases in immunity and disease, most recently in the COVID-19 pandemic by SARS-CoV-2 proteases, as well as two new molecular correctors to cure MALT1 protease deficiency in a primary immunodeficiency. In so doing he has trained 40 postdoctoral fellows and graduated 20 students, with 18 now professors. He chairs the HUPO Chromosome-centric Human Proteome Project (C-HPP) and was invited to attend the G7 Research Summit on One Health. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Canadian National Proteomics Network Tony Pawson Award (2014); the Proteomass Scientific Society Award (2017); the highly prestigious 2018 international HUPO Discovery Award in Proteomics Sciences; and the 2022 Helmut Holzer Award.