Ubiquitin-specific protease 36 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the USP36 gene. This gene encodes a member of the ubiquitin-specific protease family of proteases that is a deubiquitinating enzyme (DUB) with His and Cys domains. This protein is located in the nucleoli and deubuquitinate nucleophosmin and fibrillarin. May be required for maintaining multiple types of adult stem cells. May function as a transcriptional repressor by continually deubiquiting histone H2B at the promoters of genes critical for cellular differentiation, thereby preventing histone H3 'Lys-4' trimethylation (H3K4).