Jean-Phillipe Gourdine, PhD, MS, was awarded a $249,263 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support his project, “Exploring the Role of Urinary Host N-Glycans as a Nutrient Source for Bladder Bacteria Metabolism.”
Dr. Gourdine is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Lewis & Clark College. He has over 12 years of experience in Glycobiology in international laboratories in Europe (France & UK) and the USA. His scientific specialties include protein chemistry, cell biology, and glycobiology. Dr. Gourdine is also an active participant in the CAIRIBU Urobiome Research Interest Group and presented a virtual talk to the group titled “Bladder Microbial Catabolism & Host Urinary Glycans, A New Perspective on Overactive Bladder“ last year.
In this project, Dr. Gourdine will perform studies focused on the development of biochemical methods to identify commensal bladder bacteria capable of symbiotic nutrient acquisition of host N-glycans and to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of glycoside hydrolases (GHs) involved in this process. Urine is a hostile environment for bacterial growth; nevertheless, low-biomass microorganisms can live in the bladder lumen. Previous bioinformatics work has shown that several bacterial members of the urobiome can digest host glycoproteins. Uromodulin (UMOD) is the most concentrated N-glycoprotein in urine. Dr. Gourdine will explore if UMOD could be a nutrient source for the urobiome by characterizing urinary bacterial interactions with UMOD and by cloning, expressing, and functionally characterizing putative bacterial GHs involved in N-glycans degradation.
The grant is part of the NSF’s Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in Mathematical and Physical Sciences program, which sponsors research by pre-tenure faculty at institutions that don’t receive significant NSF funding.
This award will support the purchase of new equipment, paid summer research experiences for undergraduate students, and continued collaboration with one of the European leaders in Glycosciences, the Center for Research on Plant Macromolecules.
Congratulations, Dr. Gourdine. We look forward to hearing the new discoveries that come from this grant.