Alan A. Doucette

Associate Professor

BSc (Dalhousie), PhD (Alberta)

E-mail: alan.doucette@dal.ca
Phone: (902) 494-3714
Fax: (902) 494-1310

* Accepting Graduate Students. 

Research Interests: Bioanalytical Chemistry 

My research interests are in the area of analytical mass spectrometry (MS). Specifically, I am interested in the development of new technologies and methodologies, based on MS detection, for the characterization of biological macromolecules. These approaches focus primarily on developing and interfacing new front-end techniques to MS platforms.

Historically, many of the discoveries in biological sciences have stemmed from advancements in analytical instrumentation. For example, the field of genomics evolved through the development of high throughput instruments for sequencing DNA. Already, new developments in mass spectrometry have laid a strong foundation for proteomics analysis, a field aimed at defining either a complete or a partial subset of the protein complement of a cell. However, existing MS technologies only begin to meet the incredible demands of proteomics. The focus of my research, therefore, is to provide improved platforms for proteome analysis. One particular challenge which I will address is in detecting changes in protein abundance levels (expression proteomics). Owing to the shear complexity of the sample, analytical method development will encompass several areas of research, including techniques for protein separation, protein labelling, digestion of protein samples, protein or peptide display techniques, strategies for MS detection, as well as data interpretation and analysis. Following development, these new platforms will be applied, in collaboration with other researches, to the study of real-world biological systems. Ultimately, these methods will provide researchers with a unique opportunity to understand how complex biological systems change in response to various stimuli. This can therefore further lead to an improved understanding of various diseases, as well as new techniques to improve the process of drug discovery.

Visit Our Lab: The Doucette Group