Biography:

Dr Couture obtained his PhD in Physiology and Endocrinology from Laval University in 2003 in the laboratory of Dr. Rock Breton. In 2004, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Raymond C. Trievel in the Biological Chemistry department of the University of Michigan to complete his post-doctoral studies. During his post-doctoral training, he combined high-throughput cloning, expression studies and crystallography to elucidate the crystal structures of enzymes controlling the structure of the chromatin. Dr. Couture has published his work in many high-impact journals including Genes & Development, Nature Structure and Molecular Biology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Journal of Biological Chemistry. Moreover, one of Dr. Couture’s publications has been highlighted by the Faculty of 1000 Biology as a significant contribution to the field of enzymology. Dr. Couture also reviews papers for the BMC Structural Biology, a journal publishing original peer-reviewed research articles in investigations into the structure and function of biological macromolecules.

Short summary of research interests:

My laboratory employs X-ray crystallography, functional genomics and systems biology to understand the mechanistic details underlying the covalent modifications of the chromatin that control the architectural integrity of chromosomes. Our aims are to provide a detailed view of these modifications by 1) studying the enzymes that covalently modify chromosomal scaffolding proteins, 2) determining the consensus amino acid sequences recognized by these proteins and 3) modeling this information into a genuine working model with the specific goals of understanding a biological problem related to a particular covalent modification. Considering the dynamic nature of chromosomal structure, this information will be fundamental in providing the biochemical bases for general DNA-scaffolding processes implicated in DNA duplication, transcription and translation.

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