Gagnon Research Lab

Our laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms of protein biosynthesis in bacteria. This intricate process is accomplished by the ribosome, the universal molecular machine that reads the mRNA and decodes it into the corresponding amino acids, the building blocks of all proteins. The ribosome works together with a plethora of translation factor proteins that regulate its function. The ribosome is a major antibiotic target in bacteria and our structural studies may provide unsuspected opportunities for the design of new and improved therapeutics.

We use the state-of-the-art structural biology approach of cryogenic-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) combined with biochemical and fast kinetic methods to decipher the most fundamental aspects of ribosome function. Several projects are underway exploring the structural bases of translation initiation, elongation, termination, and ribosome recycling in many bacterial pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Listeria spp., Mycobacteria, and Francisella tularensis. We are also interested in the mechanisms of ribosome hibernation and translation inhibition by small-molecule antibiotics. The molecular bases by which post-transcriptional modifications in tRNAs facilitate decoding of the genetic code is one more line of research in our laboratory.