Shortly after his arrival at the University of Oviedo more than 30 years ago, Carlos Lopez Otin focused on the study of the involvement of proteolytic systems in pathological processes, especially in cancer. The work of Lopez Otin's laboratory in this field has yielded the identification of more than 60 novel human proteases dysregulated in different malignant tumors. They have also delineated essential biological information in regards to the functional role of many of these genes in cancer and in other pathological processes, including the devastating syndromes of accelerated aging. They have also proposed a global approach for the study of proteases in health and disease through novel concepts such as Degradomics and Degradome, together with the development (in collaboration with Chris Overall) of high throughput methods that tackle these concepts. In parallel studies, the Lopez Otin group has been involved in the functional annotation of the human genome and other genomes and degradomes of biomedical and evolutionary relevance, from chimpanzees and other primates to mice and whales.