Karine Auclair
Auclair鈥檚 research focuses on two areas: 1) antimicrobials and resistance, and 2) green chemistry with enzymes. In the former, Auclair鈥檚 projects include designing new antimicrobial agents and identifying molecules that resensitize bacteria to the host immune system, referred to as bacterio-modulators. While new antibiotics are urgently needed, bacterio-modulators have the potential to replace antibiotics in the treatment of infections. Auclair is also pioneering innovative strategies to improve the activity of enzymes for biocatalytic applications. Examples include the use of bioconjugation to make allosteric activation permanent, and the development of solvent-free mechanoenzymatic methods for the clean degradation of biowastes and plastics.