The bacterial cytochrome P450 BM3 is known for its rapid oxidation of an alkyl group into a hydroxyl one. The performance of this enzymatic mono-oxygenation reaction is due to the great catalytic efficiency and product specificity of the enzyme. A key trait of CYP450s is their innate substrate promiscuity, which is of interest for the bio-synthetic catalysis of multiple pharmaceutical compounds. This enzymatic reaction offers higher yields at lower costs, while saving time and labor from traditional chemical synthesis. Extensive studies have performed Directed Evolution on the native enzyme, to modulate the substrate specificity and increase the catalytic efficiency. More importantly, the production of indigo by CYP450 BM3 variants has been used to predict a higher rate of enzymatic activity towards different substrates. Thus, we hypothesize that variants capable of producing this blue dye are more likely to be active towards a class or a group of substrates. The objective is to create a large data set of CYP450 BM3 variants and characterize their efficiency towards different molecules in order to develop a computer algorithm capable of predicting the activity of mutations towards certain substrates. Such an algorithm could be used for discovering new activity toward pharmaceutical compounds of interest or develop new pathways for the bio-synthesis of important products.

•    B.Sc. 2020 (Biochemistry and molecular medicine, Honors program), Université de Montréal

•    09/2020 – Present: Graduate student, Joelle Pelletier Laboratory , Department of biochemistry,                               Université de Montréal

•    05/2020 – 08/2020: Research intern on COVID-19 antibody detection assay project - Joelle Pelletier                               Laboratory

•    01/2020 -- 05/2020: Research intern on RNA Bioinformatics project - Eric Lécuyer Laboratory - Montreal                           Clinical Research Institute (IRCM)

•    2020-2022 – APRENTICE Scholarship Trainee Program - uOttawa (NSERC)

•    Summer 2019 – Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)  - Bourse de recherche de      premier cycle (BRPC) - Acceptée

•    Summer 2019 – Fonds de recherche du Québec - Nature et Technologies (FRQNT) - Refusée

•    Rousseau, O., Ebert, M.C., Quaglia, D., Fendri, A., H.-Parisien, A., Besna, J. N., Iyathurai, S. and Pelletier, J.N. (2019) Indigo Formation and Rapid NADPH Consumption Provide Robust Prediction of Raspberry Ketone Synthesis by Engineered Cytochrome P450 BM3. ChemCatChem, 12(3): 837-845.