Dr Vincent Martin, PhD

Professor and Concordia University Senior Research Chair, Biology

Status: On sabbatical until June 30, 2025

Research areas: Metabolic engineering and synthetic biology of natural products. Microbial evolutionary engineering

Contact information

Email:

vincent.martin@concordia.ca

Biography

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.

Teaching activities

Microbiology
Industrial and Environmental Biotechnology

Selected publications

1. Chester P., M.A. Nasr*, T. Skarina, R. Di Leo, D.H. Kwan, V.J.J.Martin, P.J. Stogios, R. Mahadevan, A. Savchenko. 2024. Functional andstructural characterization of an IclR family transcription factor for thedevelopment of dicarboxylic acid biosensor. The FEBS Journal.doi.org/10.1111/febs.17149

2. Husser M.C.*, N.P. Pham, C. Law, FRB Araujo, V.J.J. Martin,A.J. Piekny. 2024 Endogenous tagging using split mNeonGreen inhuman iPSCs for live imaging studies. eLife Vol 12 pages RP92819

3. Dykstra, C*, M.E. Pyne**, V.J.J. Martin.2023. CRAPS: Chromosomal-Repair-Assisted Pathway Shuffling in yeast. ACSSynthetic Biology 12(9) 2578–2587.Co-first authors.

4. Bagley,J.*, M.E. Pyne**, K. Exley**, K. Kevvai**, Q. Wang, M. Whiteway and V.J.J. Martin. 2023. Genome sequencing of 15 acid-tolerant yeast. Microbiology Resource Announcement. e00337-23.

5. Pyne, M.E.**, J. Bagley*, L. Narcross*, K. Kevvai**, K. Exley**, M.Davies**, Q. Wang, M. Whiteway, V.J.J. Martin. 2023. Screeningnon-conventional yeasts for organic acid tolerance and engineering Pichiaoccidentalis for production of muconic acid. Nature Communications 14(1):5294.

· Research highlights “Optimizing acid overproduction” in Nature Chemical BiologyVolume 19 | October 2023 | 1172–1173 | 1173.

6. Nasr, M.A.*, V.J.J.Martin, D. H. Kwan.2023. Divergent directed evolution of a TetR-typerepressor towards aromatic molecules. Nucleic Acids Research51(14):7675–7690.

7. Pyne M.E.**, N.D. Gold**, V.J.J. Martin. 2023. Pathway elucidation and microbial synthesis of proaporphine andbis-benzylisoquinoline alkaloids from sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera). Metabolic Engineering 77, 162-173.

8. Husser M.C.*, I, Ozugergin, T. Resta, V.J. J. Martin, A.J. Piekny.2022. Cytokinetic diversity in mammalian cells is revealed by thecharacterization of endogenous anillin, Ect2 and RhoA. Open Biology 12:220247.

9. Bean, B.D.M.**, M Whiteway, V.J.J.Martin. 2022. The MyLo CRISPR-Cas9Toolkit: A Markerless Yeast Localization and Overexpression CRISPR-Cas9 Toolkit.G3: Genes | Genomes | Genetics 12(8), jkac154.

10. Bean, B.D.M.**, C. Mulvihill, R.K. Garge, D.R. Boutz, B.J. Floyd, W.Cheney*, O. Rousseau*, A.D. Ellington, E.M. Marcotte, J.D. Gollihar,M. Whiteway, V.J.J.Martin. 2022. Functional expression of opioid receptors and otherhuman GPCRs in yeast engineered to produce human sterols. Nature Communications 13(1):1-15.

11. Nasr, M.A.*, L.Timmins*, V.J. J. Martin,D. Kwan. 2022. A versatile transcription factor biosensor systemresponsive to multiple aromatic and indole inducers. ACS Synthetic Biology 11(4):1692-1698.

12. Pyne M.E.**, V.J.J. Martin. 2022. Microbial synthesis of natural,semi-synthetic, and new-to-nature tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids. CurrentOpinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry 33:100561.