François Rouleau
PhD Student / Evolutionary systems biology
e-mail: francois.rouleau.2 [at] ulaval.ca
Biography
Born and raised in Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges, I graduated from St-Lawrence College (Québec City) in 2015 with a diploma in Natural Sciences, along with a Biomedical Science minor. During these two years, I had the chance to work on a research project on the oligodynamic effect of metals and on the microbiology of coins under the guidance of Dr Anna Dera. It was at that moment that I was introduced to microbiology, and I was instantly conquered by this wonderful discipline. I decided to apply for a bachelor’s degree in Microbiology at Laval University. During my first year, I applied for a research project on the genomics of Aeromonas salmonicida in Dr. Steve Charette’s lab and I was accepted. I worked in Dr. Charette’s lab during a year and a half. During this time, I had the chance to be mentored by Antony T. Vincent, who transmitted to me his work ethics and rigorous scientific approach. This research experience allowed me to participate in the writing of two scientific papers, one of them as a first author, all of this during my bachelor’s degree. At the beginning of my 3rd year as bachelor student, I decided to apply for a master’s degree in Dr. Christian Landry’s lab, who accepted my application. I have been working in Dr. Landry’s lab since early September 2017, and will start my master’s degree on the humanization of yeast and protein-protein interactions in 2018. I am also the student council president of the Association des étudiants en biochimie, microbiologie et bio-informatique de l’Université Laval (AEBBMUL).
Research interests
My main research interest is synthetic biology, specifically the synthesis of new metabolic pathways and the interspecies splicing of pathways and genes. I adore lab work and bioinformatics, so I always try to work on projects where I can find a balance between the two. I would like to work on the genetic modification of yeast and use it as a molecular tool to understand other species. I dream of one day having my own lab.
Publications
Rouleau FD, Dubé AK, Gagnon-Arsenault I, Dibyachintan S, Pageau A, Després PC, Lagüe P, and Landry CR. Deep mutational scanning of Pneumocystis jirovecii dihydrofolate reductase reveals allosteric mechanism of resistance to an antifolate. PLOS Genetics 20(4):e1011252 (2024)
Cisneros AF*, Rouleau F*, Bautista C, Lemieux P, and Dumont-Leblond N. Toeholder: a software for automated design and in silico validation of toehold riboswitches. PeerJ Physical Chemistry 5:e28 (2023)
Evans-Yamamoto D, Rouleau FD, Nanda P, Makanae K, Liu Y, Després PC, Matsuo H, Seki M, Dubé AK, Ascencio D, Yachie N, and Landry CR. Barcode fusion genetics-protein-fragment complementation assay (BFG-PCA): tools and resources that expand the potential for binary protein interaction discovery. Nucleic Acids Research, gkac045 (2022)
Rouleau FD, Vincent AT, Charette SJ. Genomic and phenotypic characterization of an atypical Aeromonas salmonicida strain isolated from a lumpfish and producing unusual granular structures. J Fish Dis. January 2018. doi:10.1111/jfd.12769
Vincent AT, Rouleau FD, Moineau S & Charette SJ, Study of mesophilic Aeromonas salmonicida sheds light on on the species lifestyle and taxonomic dilemma. FEMS Microbiology Letters 364:fnx239 (2017)