Lynne Howell

Biography

  Dr. P. Lynne Howell is a Senior Scientist in the Program in Molecular Structure and Function at The Hospital for Sick Children and a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto.  Dr. Howell is interested in the development of novel antibiotics and is currently focused on phenomena that are critical for bacterial biofilm development. Using a combination of structural biology, biochemistry and microbiology, Dr. Howell’s research seeks to understand at the molecular level: how the virulence factor type IV pili (T4P), used by P. aeruginosa to establish infections and for biofilm formation, is assembled; and how the exopolysaccharides alginate, poly ????-1,4-N-acetylglucosamine, and the pel and psl polysaccharides – major components of biofilm matrix in different bacteria – are synthesized, post-translationally modified, and exported from the cell. Dr. Howell holds a Canada Research Chair in Structural Biology.   Dr. Howell obtained an undergraduate degree in Biophysics from the University of Leeds in 1983.  She received her Ph.D. from the University of London in 1986 in the laboratory of Professor Julia Goodfellow.  Dr. Howell spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow under the mentorship of Professor Gregory A. Petsko at Massachusetts Institute of Technology before moving to Paris for two years to study with Dr. Roberto Poljak and Dr. Andre Menez at the Institute Pasteur.  She joined The Hospital for Sick Children in late 1991 and was cross-appointed to the University of Toronto shortly afterwards.  Dr. Howell is a former recipient of a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Investigator Award. She was Head of the Program in Molecular Medicine (formerly Molecular Structure and Function) at SickKids from 2002-2014 and Associate Chief, Research Integration and Communication (2014-2016).

Research Interest

Engineering