Shawn French, Ph.D.

Shawn French, Ph.D.

Position: Research Associate

About: Shawn completed a Ph.D in Biophysics at the University of Guelph. He joined the Brown lab in January 2012, and since then has been a force in microscopy, computer vision, and bacterial gene expression. Lately he can be found pretending he knows things about AI and making pretty graphics. He prefers, however, to spend his free time cooking and reading books about warlocks.

 
 

Research Interests: 

My research revolves around finding new screening phenotypes, and exploring their potential in screening for new bioactive molecules. Further, I have been creating new platforms for novel chemical-genomics screening. In increasingly high throughput, we can now assess whole genome responses to stimuli such chemical or environmental pressures.

Publications:

Featured
CARD 2023: expanded curation, support for machine learning, and resistome prediction at the Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database

Authors: Alcock BP, Huynh W … Bhando B, Carfrae LA, Farha MA, French S, Gordzevich R, Rachwalski K, Tu MM … Brown ED … McArthur AG.

Reference: Nucleic Acids Res. 2023 January 6; doi: 10.1093/nar/gkac920

Central metabolism is a key player in E. coli biofilm stimulation by sub-MIC antibiotics

Authors: Yaeger LN, French S, Brown ED, Côté JP, Burrows LL

Reference: bioRxiv 2022 September 15; doi: 10.1101/2022.09.14.507886

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Chemical Screen for Vancomycin Antagonism Uncovers Probes of the Gram-Negative Outer Membrane

Authors: Klobucar K, Côté JP, French S, Borrillo L, Guo ABY, Serrano-Wu MH, Lee KK, Hubbard B, Johnson JW, Gaulin JL, Magolan J, Hung DT, and Brown ED.

Reference: ACS Chem. Biol. 2021 May 11; doi: 10.1021/acschembio.1c00179

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Systems-Level Chemical Biology to Accelerate Antibiotic Drug Discovery

Authors: Farha MA, French S, and Brown ED.

Reference: Acc. Chem. Res.. 2021 Mar 31; doi: 10.1021/acs.accounts.1c00011

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Physicochemical and Structural Parameters Contributing to the Antibacterial Activity and Efflux Susceptibility of Small-Molecule Inhibitors of Escherichia coli

Authors: El Zahed SS, French S, Farha MA, Kumar G, and Brown ED.

Reference: AAC. 2021 Jan 19; doi: 10.1128/AAC.01925-20.

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Gene Dispensability in Escherichia coli Grown in Thirty Different Carbon Environments

Authors: Tong M, French S, El Zahed SS, Ong WK, Karp PD, Brown ED

Reference: mBio. 2020 Sept 29; doi: 10.1128/mBio.02259-20

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Genetic and Chemical Screening in Human Blood Serum Reveals Unique Antibacterial Targets and Compounds against Klebsiella pneumoniae

Authors: Weber BS, De Jong AM, Guo ABY, Dharavath S, French S, Fiebig-Comyn AA, Coombes BK, Magnolan J, Brown ED.

Reference: Cell Rep. 2020 July 21; doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.107927

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Genetic and Chemical-Genetic Interactions Map Biogenesis and Permeability Determinants of the Outer Membrane of Escherichia coli

Authors: Klobucar K, French S, Côté JP, Howes JR, Brown ED

Reference: mBio. 2020 Mar 10; doi: 10.1128/mBio.00161-20

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A comprehensive guide to dynamic analysis of microbial gene expression using the 3D-printed PFIbox and a fluorescent reporter library

Authors: French S, Guo ABY, Brown ED.

Reference: Nat. Protoc. 2020 Jan 08; doi: 10.1038/s41596-019-0257-0

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Potentiation of Antibiotics against Gram-Negative Bacteria by Polymyxin B Analogue SPR741 from Unique Perturbation of the Outer Membrane

Authors: French S, Farha M, Ellis MJ, Sameer Z, Côté JP, Cotroneo N, Lister T, Rubio A, Brown ED.
Reference: ACS Infect. Dis. 2019 Sept 30th; doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.9b00159

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A macrophage-based screen identifies antibacterial compounds selective for intracellular Salmonella Typhimurium

Authors: Ellis MJ, Tsai CN, Johnson JW, French S, Elhenawy W, Porwollik S, Andrews-Polymenis H, McClelland M, Magolan J, Coombes BK and Brown ED. 
Reference: Nat. Commun. 2019 Jan 14; doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-08190-x

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Open-Source High-Throughput Phenomics of Bacterial Promoter-Reporter Strains

Authors: French S, Coutts BE, Brown ED.
Reference: Cell Syst. 2018. Aug 29; doi:10.1016/j.cels.2018.07.004

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Bicarbonate alters bacterial susceptibility to antibiotics by targeting the proton motive force

Authors: Farha MA, French S, Stokes JM, Brown ED.
Reference: ACS Infect Dis. 2017 Dec 21;4(3):382-390. doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.7b00194.

Exploiting the sensitivity of nutrient transporter deletion strains in discovery of natural product antimetabolites

Authors: Gehrke SS, Kumar G, Yokubynas NA, Côté JP, Wang W, French S, MacNair CR, Wright GD,
Reference: ACS Infect Dis. 2017 Oct 25;3(12):955-965. doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.7b00149.

Chemical genomics reveals mechanistic hypotheses for uncharacterized bioactive molecules in bacteria

Authors: French S, Ellis MJ, Coutts BE, Brown ED.
Reference: Curr Opin Microbiol. 2017 Sept 26;39:42-47. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2017.09.005

Bacteria Getting into Shape: Genetic Determinants of E. coli Morphology

Authors: French S, Côté JP, Stokes JM, Truant R, Brown ED.
Reference: mBio. 2017 Mar 7;8(2):e01977-16. doi: 10.1128/mBio.01977-16

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Pentamidine sensitizes Gram-negative pathogens to antibiotics and overcomes acquired colistin resistance

Authors: Stokes JM, MacNair CR, Ilyas B, French S, Côté JP, Bouwman C, Farha MA, Sieron AO, Whitfield C, Coombes BK, Brown, ED.
Reference: Nature Microbiology. 2017 Mar 06;2(5):17028. doi:10.1038/nmicrobiol.2017.28

A cell-based approach to characterize antimicrobial compounds through kinetic dose response

Authors: MacNair CR, Stokes JM, French S, Myers CL, Iyer KR, Brown ED.
Reference: Bioorg Med Chem. 2016 Dec 15;24(24):6315-6319. doi: 10.1016/j.bmc.2016.09.053.

Identification of Two Phosphate Starvation-induced Wall Teichoic Acid Hydrolases Provides First Insights into the Degradative Pathway of a Key Bacterial Cell Wall Component.

Authors: Myers CL, Li FK, Koo BM, El-Halfawy OM, French S, Gross CA, Strynadka NC, Brown ED.
Reference: J Biol Chem. 2016 Dec 9;291(50):26066-26082.
The Genome-Wide Interaction Network of Nutrient Stress Genes in Escherichia coli

Authors: Côté JP, French S, Gehrke SS, MacNair CR, Mangat CS, Bharat A, Brown ED.
Reference: MBio. 2016 Nov 22;7(6). pii: e01714-16. doi: 10.1128/mBio.01714-16.
Structural and Kinetic Characterization of Diazabicyclooctanes as Dual Inhibitors of Both Serine-β-Lactamases and Penicillin-Binding Proteins

Authors:  King AM, King DT, French S, Brouillette E, Asli A, Alexander JA, Vuckovic M, Maiti SN, Parr TR Jr, Brown ED, Malouin F, Strynadka NC, Wright GD.

Reference: ACS Chem Biol. 2016 Apr 15;11(4):864-8. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.5b00944. Epub 2016 Jan 14.

Assembly and clustering of natural antibiotics guides target identification.
Assembly and clustering of natural antibiotics guides target identification.

Authors:  Johnston CW, Skinnider MA, Dejong CA, Rees PN, Chen GM, Walker CG, French S, Brown ED, Bérdy J, Liu DY, Magarvey NA.

Reference: Nat Chem Biol. 2016 Apr;12(4):233-9. doi: 10.1038/nchembio.2018. Epub 2016 Feb 1.

A robust platform for chemical genomics in bacterial systems
A robust platform for chemical genomics in bacterial systems

Authors: French S, Mangat C, Bharat A, Côté JP, Mori H, Brown ED.
Reference: Mol Biol Cell. 2016 Mar 15;27(6):1015-25. doi: 10.1091/mbc.E15-08-0573. Epub 2016 Jan 20.

Cold Stress Makes Escherichia coli Susceptible to Glycopeptide Antibiotics by Altering Outer Membrane Integrity.
Cold Stress Makes Escherichia coli Susceptible to Glycopeptide Antibiotics by Altering Outer Membrane Integrity.

Authors: Stokes JM, French S, Ovchinnikova OG, Bouwman C, Whitfield C, Brown ED.

Reference: Cell Chem Biol. 2016 Feb 18;23(2):267-77

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Antagonism screen for inhibitors of bacterial cell wall biogenesis uncovers an inhibitor of undecaprenyl diphosphate synthase

Authors: Farha MA, Czarny TL, Myers CL, Worrall LJ, French S, Conrady DG, Wang Y, Oldfield E, Strynadka NC, Brown ED.
Reference: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Sep 1;112(35):11048-53. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1511751112. Epub 2015 Aug 17.

Discovery of novel cell wall-active compounds using PywaC, a sensitive reporter of cell wall stress, in the model gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis

Authors: Czarny TL, Perri AL, French S, Brown ED
Reference: Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2014 Jun;58(6):3261-9. doi: 10.1128/AAC.02352-14