Garneau-Tsodikova Lab

Content:

Sylvie Garneau-Tsodikova

Education

BSc, Chemistry, Université Laval, Québec, Canada, 1995
MSc, Organic Chemistry, Université Laval, Québec, Canada, 1997
PhD, Organic Chemistry, University of Alberta, Canada, 2003
Postdoctoral Fellow, Enzymology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, 2003-2006

Honors and Awards

2008: Vahlteich Research Award
2008: Horace H. Rackham Research Award
2006 - present: John G. Searle Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry
2002: Graduate Teaching Award
1999 - 2003: Izaak Walton Killam memorial Scholarship
2001: Mary Louise Imrie Graduate Student Award
1999 - 2001: Alberta heritage Foundation for Medical Research Scholarship
1997 - 1999: Walter H. John Scholarship
1997 - 1999: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC ESB)
1995 - 1997: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC ESA)
1995 - 1999: Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies (FCAR)
1995: Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) Award
1994: Lucien Piché Foundation Fellowship
1994: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC URSA)
1992 - 1995: Canada Scholarship
1992 - 1995: Price Foundation Fellowship

Sylvie Garneau-Tsodikova graduated in 1995 at the top of her class in chemistry and obtained her M.Sc. in 1997 from Université Laval (Québec, Canada) where she received numerous awards (Chemical Institute of Canada, National Sciences and Research Council of Canada "NSERC," Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies, Price Foundation, and Lucien Piché fellowship).

She then joined the Ph.D. program in chemistry at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada). During her graduate studies as an NSERC, Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research and Izaak Walton Killam scholar, under the supervision of Professor John C. Vederas, she received rigorous training in chemistry and biochemistry. Her work in the Vederas' group focused on the discovery and synthesis of new antimicrobial agents acting on bacterial cell walls.

From Alberta, Dr. Garneau-Tsodikova moved to Harvard Medical School where she worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Christopher T. Walsh's laboratory. Through her studies on the formation and modification (halogenation) of mono- and dipyrroles in a variety of secondary metabolites, she obtained extensive training in mechanistic enzymology and strengthened her skills in biochemistry.

Using a multidisciplinary approach involving disciplines ranging from molecular biology to organic chemistry, she is addressing several issues in synthetic biology and chemistry. Her work primarily focuses on understanding the enzyme mechanisms involved in the biosynthesis of nonribosomal/polyketide antibiotics and anticancer agents from marine and terrestrial sources. She is developing tools to generate and engineer novel nonribosomal peptides through combinatorial biosynthesis. She is also studying the enzymatic reactions of deoxysugars in the biosynthesis of various natural products.