ACA Election Candidate: Gerald F. Audette

Education

BSc, Biochemistry, University of Alberta (1995); PhD, Biochemistry, University of Saskatchewan (2002); Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Alberta (2001-2006)

Professional Activities

Associate Dean, Faculty of Science, York University (2019 – Present); Canadian Representative on Council, American Crystallographic Association (2020 – 2022); Canadian National Committee for Crystallography (2020 – Present); Graduate Program Director, Dept. of Chemistry, York University (2019); ACA Meeting Program Co-Chair (2018); Director, Centre for Research on Biomolecular Interactions (2014-15); Faculty of Science Graduate Mentorship Award, York University (2014); Undergraduate Program Director, Dept. of Chemistry, York University (2014); Subject Editor, Crystallography and Structural Chemistry, FACETS Journal (2015 – Present); Canadian Division of the ACA (Chair, 2012-14); Canadian Light Source User Advisory Committee (2002-2004); Co-Editor in Chief, Journal of Bionanoscience (2006-2010); Associate Editor, Infectious Agents & Disease, Frontiers in Microbiology (2022 – Present); Synchrotron beamtime proposal reviewer, Canadian Light Source (since 2015).

Research Interests

Broadly speaking, my research focuses on understanding at a structural level how microorganisms utilize multi-protein complexes for transferring genetic material and effector molecules across membranes and facilitate adherence to a variety of surfaces. I’m interested in how these dynamic systems are assembled from their component proteins, as well as their effects on infection, adaptation to varying environmental conditions and the development of multi-drug resistance. We use single crystal diffraction and other methods such as SAXS and Hydrogen Deuterium Exchange Mass Spectrometry (HDX-MS) to characterize both the structure and dynamics of these proteins; we even have musings of fibre diffraction and cryo-EM studies of some of our systems – whatever we can use to help us tease apart protein structure and dynamics is something we’re interested in. Understanding of how these multi-protein systems are assembled from their component proteins, as well as their effects on infection and the development of resistance strategies, is critical to the development of more streamlined approaches to dealing with infection and drug resistance in pathogenic organisms. In addition, understanding how these systems function and assemble at a structural level is central to the development of biological systems for applications such as biosensors.

Statement

I am honored to be nominated for the opportunity serve as the Vice-President of the ACA. The ACA was the first association I joined as a student and has been my professional and scientific home since then. In that time, I’ve worked on the structures of small nucleoside analogs as anti-viral compounds, moved onto macromolecules, and recently delved back into “small molecules” with a colleague who is, oddly enough, exploring anti-viral nucleoside analogs. That flexibility has, I believe, been instilled through my association with the ACA. Many of my friends and colleagues of diverse scientific backgrounds, in Canada, North America, and internationally, I met through the ACA. It is where physicists, chemists, biochemists, mineralogists and others come together through the common language of crystallography. This commonality of language allows for the removal of “silos”; crystallography bridges disciplines and the ACA is our venue. We are indeed the Structural Science Society. I like to think that I have been an active member of the crystallographic community, and within the ACA, and am humbled by the opportunity to give back to my community.

I believe the best thing about the ACA is the sense of community. This is in large part due to our annual meetings. While our meetings are jam-packed with exciting science, they also afford excellent opportunities for us to actually meet colleagues, renew friendships and make new connections. Our Young Scientist SIG is a big part of that, and I’ve been able to witness their evolution; having been there for some early “mentor-mentee” events, to now seeing the exciting contributions YSSIG is bringing to the ACA is fantastic. I encourage all members to take an interest in YSSIG, their enthusiasm is infectious. As we engage our early career members, we foster the growth of the ACA; positive experiences reinforce what we as a society can offer our members. These include, but are not limited to, (a) supporting robust education in the structural sciences, (b) promoting best practices in data collection, analysis and reporting, and (c) being a strong voice advocating for the structural sciences to community at large.

Over the past several years, Council has, as we all have, had to find our way into this new era that has been shaped by COVID-19. We moved our 2020 and 2021 meetings successfully on-line and have recently returned from our first in person meeting since 2019. The Portland meeting was a success, and we even employed hybrid options, with several speakers and award winners, and indeed whole sessions presenting remotely. We need to explore how we can continue to offer this flexibility to our meetings and associated workshops, which can engage many younger attendees and those who may not be able to attend in person, without adversely affecting the budget. If we want to continue to provide broad scientific appeal and impact, we need to work creatively to deliver this through our meetings. And given that the 2026 IUCr Congress is to be held in Calgary, Canada, the ACA, along with the US and Canadian National Committees for Crystallography need to work together to deliver a meeting to remember. We can lead the way through the development of our annual meetings that combine in-person and hybrid options; these experiences will only serve us well as we head into 2026.

As we’ve all seen over several years at the ACA business meetings, our membership is lower than in the past. There are many reasons for this, and it of course has several knock-on effects including the viability of annual meetings and what we can offer our membership. So how do we grow the membership? First, putting together both exciting and welcoming annual meetings. This is something we do incredibly well already – the dynamic, wide reaching and scientifically exciting meeting in Portland speaks for itself. Second is being incredibly welcoming and supportive of our YSSIG members, first time attendees and those who have not been in a while. Scientific meetings can be daunting for young scientists and first-time attendees. I look forward to working with the YSSIG to continue encouraging and developing strategies to welcome early career colleagues to the ACA so they become long-term members. Third is the promotion of our society’s journal, Structural Dynamics. The journal is growing in impact, highlights great science, and ACA members get a discount to publish there. I encourage everyone to consider sending your work to the journal. Last is looking to organize and facilitate workshops and speakers at times not coupled to the annual meeting. Having content for our members throughout the year will give that “extra something” to our members that will aid in membership generation and retention, as well as on-going visibility to our industrial members through engagement and sponsorship opportunities.

There is a strong North American structural sciences community. I want to explore how we can grow our community, through reengaging members who may have lapsed as well as continuing to promote membership our to young scientists. When we look at where our community can grow, the young scientists are the ones who will be our future leaders. They have a diverse spectrum of interests, and often get focused on our particular sub-discipline, be it inorganic catalysts, minerology or structural biology. While this is perfectly normal, most of these interests have structural characterizations as a central component, which is where the ACA comes in. When you peruse the programs of the ACA annual meetings, or our quarterly newsletter, most of these scientific areas are covered, as are sessions on cryo-EM, hybrid methods, NMR, crystallographic education, inclusivity, and career development. The ACA fosters our building broader connections and relationships within the North American community and beyond, and our meetings are great venues to make those connections. I look forward to the challenge of (re)engaging colleagues, promoting new and renewed membership, exploring how we can be more relevant to our members scientific interests, and being an active and enthusiastic voice for the ACA and structural sciences in North America.