Welcome to the Thibodeaux lab in the Department of Chemistry at McGill University. Our research interests are strongly rooted in a desire to understand the basic biological and chemical principles that govern the biosynthesis of antimicrobial peptide natural products and that enable bacteria to resist the effects of antibiotic treatment. We are especially interested in structurally dynamic enzyme systems and in discerning how conformational changes in these dynamic enzymes relate to their functions. Our research employs a diverse set of experimental tools spanning molecular biology, biochemistry, biophysics, bioinformatics, chemical biology, and other disciplines. In particular, we exploit the many emerging applications of mass spectrometry to investigate all levels of protein structure, to interrogate antibiotic biosynthetic pathways, and to profile metabolic changes in pathogenic bacteria. We collaborate widely with many McGill researchers in the Departments of Chemistry, Biochemistry, Anatomy and Cell Biology, Plant Science, and Medicine. As such, our group provides excellent training for students at all study levels (B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D.) and postdocs interested in careers in academic research, private industry, or medicine. Please take some time to explore our web site and to contact us if you find our work as interesting as we do.
(Our website is currently under construction, so some links make be inactive. We apologize for the inconvenience.)
