Full professor
Pharmacy - Direction
Faculty of Pharmacy

Professor Éric Biron’s research program aims to discover and develop new therapeutic agents for the treatment of infectious diseases and cancers. To achieve these goals, his team uses a multidisciplinary approach combining medicinal chemistry, organic synthesis, molecular engineering, microbiology, cell biology and pharmaceutical sciences. Its research activities revolve around 2 main axes:

  • Development of new peptide-based antimicrobial agents by molecular mimicry;
  • Design and synthesis of polycyclic molecules as anticancer and antimicrobial agents.

Discovery and development of new antibacterial agents

The spread of antibiotic resistance has become a major problem worldwide in the treatment of bacterial infections. Faced with this growing threat, the development of new antimicrobial agents with innovative modes of action has become a global priority.

In this context, Prof. Biron is particularly interested in antimicrobial peptides of microbial origin such as bacteriocins, a family of low molecular weight proteins produced by several bacteria and displaying strong antimicrobial activity. As these peptides demonstrate inhibitory activities against a wide range of clinically important pathogenic bacteria, they are increasingly considered a promising alternative to antibiotics.

Given their enormous potential in the veterinary, pharmaceutical and medical sectors, Prof. Biron’s laboratory is developing new synthetic approaches to produce these peptides and uses molecular mimicry to modify their spectrum of action, optimize their pharmacological properties and improve their pharmacokinetic profile.

Development of new anticancer and antimicrobial agents

Resistance to therapeutic agents also greatly impacts the effectiveness of treatments for several cancers and infectious diseases such as fungal and parasitic infections. Consequently, the demand for innovative and effective molecules with new modes of action is growing strongly.

Among the promising molecular structures capable of generating great molecular diversity, Prof. Biron’s team is interested in fused heterocycles and polycyclic natural products of plant origin. With the objective of accessing these polycyclic molecules and exploiting their pharmaceutical potential, this axis revolves around the design of polysubstituted fused heterocycles and the derivatization of biosourced natural products for the development of new bioactive molecules with anticancer or antimicrobial activities. Thanks to a network of expert collaborators, the therapeutic potential of the generated molecules is evaluated against a collection of microorganisms such as those responsible for fungal infections, tuberculosis, malaria and other parasitic infections.