Full professor
Department of Molecular Biology, Medical Biochemistry, and Pathology
Faculty of Medicine

Jacques Côté obtained his PhD from Laval University after characterizing the structure and function of Endo G, an endonuclease involved in the replication of mitochondrial DNA and cell apoptosis. He did postdoctoral training with Dr. Jerry Workman at Penn State University, where he identified and characterized chromatin remodeling complexes (SWI/SNF) involved in gene activation. In 1997, he joined Laval University, where he is a Full Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology, Medical Biochemistry, and Pathology. He currently holds the Canada Research Chair in Chromatin Biology and Molecular Epigenetics.

His research projects characterize the dynamic role of chromatin in the regulation of nuclear functions and cell proliferation. His work uses the yeast model system as well as human cells to define the structure, function, and regulation of histone-modifying complexes implicated in genome expression and maintenance. Research in his laboratory led to important discoveries on the regulatory mechanisms involved in gene transcription and the cellular response to DNA damage, using expertise in molecular biology and genetics, biochemistry, epigenetics, genomics, proteomics, and genome editing.

The Côté lab’s research aims to understand chromatin dynamics associated with gene regulation, DNA repair, and replication. They study protein complexes that control acetylation and methylation of histones, and the composition of chromatin. They dissect the molecular mechanisms of epigenetics, in which signals to chromatin mark different genomic loci and are read by effectors to translate a biological response. Their work has characterized the structure and function of several protein complexes, identifying their intrinsic recognition modules for the epigenetic histone signature.

Discoveries in the laboratory identified and extensively characterized the highly conserved NuA4/Tip60 acetyltransferase complex and demonstrated for the first time the essential role of chromatin-modifying activities in the process of DNA repair and replication in eukaryotes. Accurate writing and reading of these epigenetic marks lead to changes in chromatin dynamics, in a targeted manner within the genome, and this process is subverted in cancer. In fact, the clear majority of the activities studied in the Côté lab are tumor suppressors, and Tip60 itself is down-regulated in a very large spectrum of cancers.