Louis-Charles Fortier, Ph.D.

Full professor and head of the lab

Follow this link for a short biography

Ismail Benmoussa, Ph.D student

Ismail started his PhD program in September 2023. His project aims at optimizing the anodization process for autodisinfecting aluminum-based antimicrobial surfaces. It is a collaborative project supported by the private companies A3 Surfaces and Rio Tinto. Prof. Gervais Soucy (Fac. of engineering) is the principal investigator of this team project an is the principal supervisor of Ismail and LC Fortier is the co-supervisor. Nathalie Faucheux (Fac. of engineering) is also working on this team project.

Alice Britoh M.Sc. student

Alice obtained her Medical Doctor degree in 2009 and has been working in clinical microbiology for 15 years. She started a M.Sc. program in September 2023 in the Fortier Lab, to work on the development of auto-disinfecting anodized aluminum-based antimicrobial surfaces. It is a collaborative project supported by the private companies A3 Surfaces and Rio Tinto. She is co-supervised by Prof. Nathalie Faucheux from the Fac. of engineering of the U. Sherbrooke. Prof. Gervais Soucy (Fac. of engineering) is the principal investigator of this team project. Alice obtained a graduate scholarship from the UdS.

Ally Champoux M.Sc. student

Ally has completed a B.Sc. degree in microbiology at U. Sherbrooke. She started her M.Sc. program in microbiology in the Fortier Lab in January 2024. Ally will use a combination of bioinformatics analyses and experimental microbiology to investigate how microbial and viral changes operate during colitis development, using a mouse model. This project is in collaboration with the lab of Nathalie Rivard from the department of immunology and cell biology at U. Sherbrooke.

Annie Chénard M.Sc. student

After 2 summer trainings in our lab, Annie is coming back for a Master in microbiology. She is the first student from our microbiology program to enter the B.Sc. – M.Sc. bridge program, meaning that she is finishing her last semester (Fall 2022) of her B.Sc. program in Biochemistry, while starting her M.Sc. program in microbiology at the same time. During her master studies, Annie will explore microbial and viral changes upon development of colitis in a mouse model. This project is a codirection with the lab of Nathalie Rivard from the department of immunology and cell biology of the faculty of medicine and health sciences.

Alexia Royer, Ph.D. student

Alexia is a French student who joined our lab in September 2021 as a Ph.D. candidate in the course of a collaborative project between the UdeS and the Université Paris-Saclay in France. She is co-supervised by Pr. Olga Soutourina. Alexia will explore phage-host interactions in C. difficile, with a focus on the receptor used by phages to infect their host. Alexia spent her second year at the U. Paris-Saclay in the lab of Pr. Soutourina, but she is now back in Sherbrooke for the rest of her thesis.

Marion Saunier, Ph.D. student

Marion is a French student who joined our lab in September 2021 as a Ph.D. candidate in the course of a collaborative project between the UdeS and the Université Paris-Saclay in France. She is supervised by Pr. Olga Soutourina and co-supervised by Pr Fortier. Marion will study a novel antiphage system in C. difficile that is controlled by a riboswitch. Marion spent the second year o fher PhD in Sherbrooke and she is now full time in France.

Andrew Umansky, Ph.D student

Andrew started a MSc project in our lab in January 2021, then passed to the PhD in January 2023. He will be exploring the genetics and host range of C. difficile phages. He obtained the “Excellence Voice Age” graduate scholarship from the UdeS during his master, then obtained a PhD scholarship from NSERC and FRQ-NT.

Chloé Girouard, Ph.D student

Chloé started her PhD in September 2024, under the supervision of Evan Mercier from the department of microbiology and infectious diseases, and co-supervision by Pr Fortier. Chloé will study multidrug efflux pumps in the Gram-negative pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii. She will also explore phage-host interactions in A. baumannii and how phages influence susceptibility to antibiotics.

Émeline Dion, B.Sc. student, COOP trainee

Émeline is an undergrad microbiology student in third year. She will be studying phage-host interactions in C. difficile.

William Lemieux, B.Sc. student, COOP trainee

William is an undergrad student in third year of biotechnology engineering. He will be working on the genetic engineering of C. difficile phages.