Professor and Concordia University Research Chair in Microbial Engineering and Synthetic Biology, Biology

Biography    Teaching activities    Selected publications   

Education

BSc (McGill University)
MSc (University of Guelph)
PhD (University of British Columbia)

Research interests

Our laboratory views microbes as small "green" factories that can convert simple carbon sources such as CO2, glucose or renewable biomass into bioproducts such as fuels, commodity and specialty chemicals or pharmaceuticals. Using a combination of functional genomics, metabolic engineering and synthetic biology techniques, we study microbes normally found in the environment in order to better understand their metabolism and physiology with the purpose of eventually engineering them as alternatives to producing, cleaner, better, cheaper or even novel products.

Microbiology
Industrial and Environmental Biotechnology

Biot-Pelletier,D., V.J.J. Martin. 2016. Seamless and site-directed mutagenesis of the Saccharomycescerevisae genome using CRISPR-Cas9. Journal of Biological Engineering. InPress.

Payne, M., L. Narcross, E.Fossati, L. Bourgeois and V.J.J. Martin.2016. Reconstituting plant secondarymetabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiaefor production of high-value benzylisoquinoline alkaloids. Methods inEnzymology. In Press. Online 10 March 2016

Campbell, A., P.Bauchart, N.D. Gold, Y. Zhu, V. de Luca and V.J.J. Martin. 2016.Engineering of a nepetalactol-producing platform strain of Saccharomycescerevisiae for the production of seco-iridoids. ACS Synthetic Biology. Web PublicationDate: March 16, 2016

Larue, K., M. Melgarand V.J.J. Martin. 2016. Directed evolution of a fungal β-glucosidase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Biotechnology for Biofuels. 9:52

Narcross, L, E. Fossati, L. Bourgeois and V J.J. Martin. 2016.Microbial factories for the production of benzylisoquinoline alkaloids. Trendsin Biotechnology. 34:228-241

Hénault-Ethier, L.,T.H. Bell, V.J.J. Martin and Y.Gélinas. 2016. Dynamics of physicochemical variables and cultivable bacteria invermicompost during steady food waste addition and upon feed interruption. CompostScience and Utilization. 24:117–135

Gold, N.D., C.M.Gowan, F.X. Lussier, S.C. Cautha, R. Mahadevan and V.J.J. Martin. 2015. Metabolic engineering of atyrosine-overproducing yeast platform strain evaluated by targetedmetabolomics. Microbial Cell Factories. 14:73

DeLoache, W.C., Z.N. Russ, L. Narcross, A.M.Gonzales, V.J.J. Martin and J.E.Dueber. 2015. An enzyme-coupled biosensor enables (S)-reticuline production in yeast from glucose. Nature ChemicalBiology. 11:465–471

Fossati, E., A. Ekins, L. Narcross, J.-P.Falgueyret and V.J.J. Martin. 2015.Synthesis of morphinan alkaloids in Saccharomycescerevisiae. PLoS One. 10(4).

Pinel, D., H.Jiang, D. Colatriano, H. Lee and V.J.J. Martin. 2015. Deconstructing the genetic basis oflignocellulosic hydrolysate tolerance using deep sequencing of genome shuffledyeast. Biotechnology for Biofuels. 8:53

Biot-Pelletier, D. and V.J.J. Martin. 2014. Evolutionaryengineering by genome shuffling. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. 98:3877-3887

Fossati, E., A. Ekins, L. Narcross, Y.Zhu, J.-P. Falgueyret, G.A.W. Beaudoin, P.J. Facchini and V.J.J. Martin. 2014.  Reconstitution of a 10-gene pathway forsynthesis of the plant benzylisoquinoline alkaloid dihydrosanguinarine in Saccharomycescerevisiae. Nature Communications.Vol 5. Published online Feb 11^th.

Gawand, P., P.Hyland, A. Ekins, V.J.J. Martin, R.Mahadevan. 2013. Novel approach toengineer strains for simultaneous sugar utilization. Metabolic Engineering. 20:63-72

Mei X., Y. Zhang, X. Chen, E.-J. Lee, C.Barber, R. Chakrabarty, I. Desgagné-Penix, T.M. Haslam, Y-B Kim, E. Liu, G.MacNevin, S. Masada-Atsumi, D. Reed, J.M. Stout, P. Zerbe, Y. Zhang, J.Bohlmann, P.S. Covello, V. De Luca, J.E. Page, D-K Ro, V.J.J Martin, P.J. Facchini,, C. Sensen. 2013. Transcriptome analysis based onnext-generation sequencing of non-model plants producing specializedmetabolites of biotechnological interest. Journal of Biotechnology. 166:122-134

Bajwa, P.K.,C-Y Ho, C-K Chan, V.J.J. Martin, J.T. Trevors and H. Lee. 2013. Transcriptional profiling of Saccharomyces cerevisiae T2 cells upon exposure to hardwood spentsulphite liquor. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. 103:1281-1295

Cautha, S.C., C.M. Gowen, F.X. Lussier,N.D. Gold, V.J.J. Martin, R.Mahadevan. 2013. Model-driven design of a Saccharomycescerevisiae platform strain with improved tyrosine production capabilities.Computer Applications in Biotechnology 12 (1), 221-226

Lussier, F.X., D. Colatriano, Z.Wiltshire, J.E. Page and V.J.J. Martin.2012. Engineering microbes for plant polyketides biosynthesis. Computationaland Structural Biotechnology Journal for a special volume on Advances inMetabolic Engineering and Design of Cell Factories. Vol.3, Issue 4.

Wieczorek, A.S. and V.J.J. Martin. 2012. Effects of cohesin-containing scaffold proteinarchitecture on binding dockerin-enzyme fusions on the surface of Lactococcus lactis. Microbial CellFactories. 11:160.

Hagel, J.M., G.Beaudoin, E. Fossati, Ekins, A, V.J.J.Martin and P.J. Facchini. 2012. Characterization of a flavoprotein oxidase fromopium poppy catalyzing the final steps in sanguinarine and papaverinesynthesis. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 51: 42972-42983.

Burton, E., and V.J.J. Martin. 2012. Proteomic analysis of Clostridium thermocellum ATCC 27405reveals the up-regulation of an alternative transhydrogenase-malate pathway andnitrogen assimilation during growth on cellulose. Canadian Journal ofMicrobiology. 58:1378-1388.

Wilde, C., N. Bawa, N.D. Gold,H. Tambor, L. Mougharbel, R. Storms and V.J.J. Martin. 2012. Expression of a library of fungalß-glucosidases in Saccharomycescerevisiae for the development of a biomass fermenting strain. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. 95:647-659

Facchini, P.,J. Bohlmann, P.S. Covello, V. De Luca, R. Mahadevan, J.E. Page, D.-K. Ro, C.W.Sensen. R. Storms, and V.J.J. Martin.  2011. Synthetic biosystems for the productionof high-value plant metabolites. Trends in Biotechnology (Featured on coverpage). 30:127-131

Cluis, C.P., A. Ekins, L. Narcross, H.Jiang, N.D. Gold, A.M. Burja, V.J.J.Martin. 2011 Identification of bottlenecks in Escherichia coli engineered for the production of CoQ₁₀.Metabolic Engineering. 13:733-744.

Bajwa, P.K., C. Phaenark, N.Grant, X. Zhang, M. Paice, V.J.J. Martin,J.T. Trevors and H. Lee. 2011. Ethanol production from selectedlignocellulosic hydrolysates by genome shuffled strains of Scheffersomyces stipitis. Bioresource Technology. 102:9965-9969

Usher, J., V. Balderas-Hernandez, P.Quon, N.D. Gold, V.J.J. Martin, R.Mahadevan and K. Baetz. 2011 Chemical and synthetic genetic arrayanalysis identifies genes that suppress xylose utilization and fermentation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. G3: Genes,Genomes and Genetics. 1:247-258

Pinel, D., P. Gawand, R. Mahadevan and V.J.J. Martin. 2011. High-throughput ‘omics’ technologies and systemsbiology for developing Saccharomycescerevisiae strains for lignocellulosic bioethanol production. Biofuels. 2:659-675

Pinel, D., F. D’Aoust S.B. delCardayre, P.K.Gill-Bajwa, H. Lee and V.J.J. Martin.2011. Genome shuffling of Saccharomyces cerevisiae throughrecursive population mating leads to tolerance to spent sulfite liquor. Appliedand Environmental Microbiology. 77: 4736-4743

Wieczorek,A.S. and V.J.J. Martin. 2010.Engineering the cell surface display of cohesins for in vivo assembly of cellulosome inspired recombinant enzymecomplexes. Microbial Cell Factories. 9:69

Bajwa, P.K., D. Pinel, V.J.J. Martin, J.T. Trevors and H. Lee. 2010. Strain improvement of the pentose-fermentingyeast Pichia stipitis by genome shuffling.  Journal ofMicrobiological Methods. 81:179-186.

Gill-Bajwa, P.K., T. Shireen, F.D’Aoust, D. Pinel, V.J.J. Martin,J.T. Trevors, H. Lee.  2009. Mutants of thepentose-fermenting yeast Pichia stipitiswith improved tolerance to inhibitors in hardwood spent sulphite liquor.  Biotechnology and Bioengineering. 104:892-900

Cluis,C.P., A.M. Burja and V.J.J.Martin. 2007. Currentprospects for the metabolic engineering of ubiquinone-10 in microbes. Trends inBiotechnology. 25:481-534.

Gold, N.D. and V.J.J. Martin.2007. Global view of the Clostridium thermocellum cellulosome revealedby quantitative proteomic analysis. Journal of Bacteriology. 189:6787-6795.

BookChapters

Wieczorek,A.S., D. Biot-Pelletier* and V.J.J.Martin. 2013. Recombinant cellulase and cellulosome systems. In: Cellulose/ Book 2. InTech OpenAccess Publisher. Theo G.M. Van De Ven Editor. ISBN 980-953-307-487-5.

Pinel,D., V.J.J. Martin. 2013. Meioticrecombination-based genome shuffling of Saccharomycescerevisiae and Schefferomyces stiptisfor increased inhibitor tolerance to lignocellulosic substrate toxicity. In: Engineering complex phenotypes inindustrial strains. Patnaik, R., Editor. Wiley & Sons Inc.

Cluis,C.P., D. Pinel* and V.J.J Martin.2012. The production of coenzyme Q10 inmicroorganisms. In:Subcellular Biochemistry series on ReprogrammingMicrobial Metabolic Pathways. X. Wang, J. Chen and P.J. Quinn Editors.Springer