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Antibiotics that damage the bacterial genome are designed to kill bacteria. Bacteria however possess specialized DNA repair mechanisms, much like humans, that allow them to survive this damage. These repair pathways promote survival but they can also introduce mutations that give rise to antimicrobial resistance.
Our lab pursues three central questions to understand how to combat these resistance pathways:
What is the molecular mechanism of bacterial DNA repair?
How does repair differ between bacterial species?
Can repair be inhibited to improve antimicrobial therapies?
Our research combines multiple approaches to achieve our goals. We integrate structural biology techniques with biochemistry and bacterial genetics to find our answers. Some of our favourite structural techniques include small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and of course, x-ray crystallography.
Within the lab, we have access to a Rigaku MicroMax 007-HF x-ray generator for our crystallography, as well as a Rigaku BioSAXS-1000. Other structural instrumentation on campus is available through the Biointerfaces Institute and the Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy, and the Centre for Advanced Light Microscopy while much of our biochemical work utilizes the fantastic Centre for Microbial Chemical Biology.
Research Funded By:
Research Funded By:
We acknowledge the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
Cette recherche a été financée par le Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du Canada (CRSNG) et les Instituts de recherche en santé du Canada (IRSC).
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