Pr Labonté

Biography

Pr Labonté obtained his B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the Université du Québec à Montréal in 1992. He subsequently obtained a Master's degree in Microbiology and Immunology from the Institut Armand-Frappier (1994) and a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology of the University of Montreal (2001). From 2000 to 2003, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in antiviral research at the Department of Infectious Diseases of Wyeth Pharmaceutical, New York. He joined as a professor at the INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier in the summer of 2003 to undertake research on replication of the hepatitis C virus.

Research Interest

It is estimated that 2% of the world's population is infected with the hepatitis C virus. This virus, transmitted by the parenteral route, foils the immune system and settles chronically in more than 80% of infected individuals. The constant and sustained replication of the virus in the liver cells promotes the development of cirrhosis in the liver and ultimately the appearance of liver cancer. Therefore, in North America, HCV is the leading cause of liver transplantation and causes thousands of deaths each year. HCV is an enveloped virus whose genome consists of single-stranded RNA of positive polarity. Our laboratory is interested in the molecular mechanisms involved in the replication of viral RNA. Molecular characterization of viral RNA polymerase (NS5B) The enzyme responsible for the duplication of genomic RNA is the NS5B non-structural protein. The three-dimensional structure of NS5B revealed that several structural elements of the enzyme are unique to this enzyme. Using the directed mutagenesis technique, we try to define the function of these structures during the replication process. In addition, we try to define precisely the biophysical state of the protein (momomeric / multimeric). These characterizations are essential for the development of innovative antiviral trials.