Jan Enghild has been devoted to researching the biology and consequences of proteolytic enzymes and their inhibitors since the beginning of his career. After post-doctoral work at Duke University,  he took up a faculty position at his alma mater where he worked for 13 years. In 2000 Enghild moved his laboratory to Aarhus University in Denmark where he established a core facility for proteomics.

In broad terms Enghild seeks to understand the “structure >activity>function” algorithm of proteins. His group’s research is located at the interface between other structure analyses methods (NMR and X-ray crystallography) and the group exploits a combination of protein chemistry, proteomics, enzymology, and recombinant DNA techniques. He is particularly interested in proteases and their inhibitors, extracellular matrix (ECM) homeostasis, and the identification and characterization of post-translational modifications.