Sylvie Garneau-Tsodikova is a French Canadian-American chemist who is a Professor and Associate Vice President for Research at the University of Kentucky. One of the areas of her research interest is the development of new molecules to combat bacterial and fungal resistance.
Garneau-Tsodikova was born in Quebec City, Canada. She attended the Université Laval for her undergraduate studies in chemistry, where she graduated top of the class.[1] As a student, she was honoured with several awards, including distinguishments from the Chemical Institute of Canada and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.[1] She completed a Master's thesis on the synthesis of glutamyl transfer RNA synthetase inhibitors.[2] She moved to the University of Alberta for graduate studies, where she worked on the impact of antimicrobial agents of bacterial cell walls.[3][4] During her doctoral studies she became interested in infectious diseases and the development of antibacterial agents.[5]
Garneau-Tsodikova moved to the Harvard Medical School for her postdoctoral training where she worked with Christopher T. Walsh on the formation and modification of dipyrroles. At Harvard she was trained in both enzymology and biochemistry. In 2006, Garneau-Tsodikova moved to the University of Michigan, where she was an Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry.[6] She spent seven years at Michigan, until she moved to the University of Kentucky. She was promoted to Professor and Assistant Dean in 2018.[7]
Garneau-Tsodikova's research focuses on the development of antifungal and antibacterial agents.[5] In particular, Garneau-Tsodikova focused on drug resistance in tuberculosis and in fungal infections by Candida auris.[5] She was also involved in the development of multifunctional enzymes with tunable biological properties. She served as an Associate Editor of the Royal Society of Chemistry journal MedChemComm, now called RSCMedicinal Chemistry.[8]
