Suneel Apte's research is in the broad area of connective tissue biology and extracellular matrix biochemistry, with a focus on metalloproteases and their inhibitors. Because of his training as an orthopaedic surgeon, this work is inclined towards musculoskeletal conditions such as arthritis, but the work done in his group is widely applicable to many other fields, including vascular biology and to cancer. His interest in proteases commenced with work done as a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Bjorn Olsen's laboratory that led to discovery and characterization of a new metalloprotease inhibitor, TIMP-3. Subsequently, his group identified key biological roles of the membrane metalloprotease MT1-MMP, and discovered and characterized several new members of the ADAMTS superfamily. Ongoing work in his laboratory includes investigation of the functions of ADAMTS proteases using mouse and human genetics, determination of the molecular networks that ADAMTS proteases participate in, and understanding the fundamental operational mechanisms of these proteases.