I am Dr. Jean-Philippe Gourdine, aka Doctor Jay-P, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Lewis & Clark College (L&C). I teach Structural (CHEM 330) and Metabolic Biochemistry (CHEM 335), Biochemistry (CHEM 336), and Chemistry labs Intro (CHEM 110) and Organic (CHEM 220).
I am originally from Guadeloupe, an archipelago in the Caribbean (a French Overseas Department), where I got my PhD in Marine Biochemistry in 2006 at Université des Antilles et de la Guyane. I did a teaching and research postdoc in Martinique and Grenoble in Structural Glycobiology in Dr. Anne Imberty's lab, then moved to Atlanta, GA, in 2009 for my second postdoc in Glycobiology at Emory University in Dr. Richard Cummings' lab.
Since 2014, I have been living in Portland, Oregon. I worked at:
- Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU) within the Oregon Clinical Translational Institute
- OHSU library as a Senior Research Associate on Bioinformatics projects related to Undiagnosed Diseases
- Biological, Biochemical, and Biomedical Ontology in the Haendel Lab
- Karstens Lab, working on the Bladder Microbiome (Data Standards and Glycobiology)
In 2021, I received with Dr. Karstens a small foundation grant from the Circle of Giving to study the host glycan in the urobiome context using Bioinformatics. I also started teaching at L&C in the Chemistry Department as a Visiting Assistant Professor.
Since August 2023, I have been an Assistant Professor on a tenure track at L&C, where I am starting my own lab. In September 2025, I received a National Science Foundation Award (NSF), which allowed me to continue my research on the urobiome metabolism toward host glycoproteins (Did you know urine is NOT sterile?). I hired fantastic undergraduate students who did research during the year through a Course Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) and during the summer 2026.
I am back at the CERMAV, in Grenoble, France, for my sabbatical in Structural Glycobiology working closely with Dr. Annabelle Varrot (Crystallographer) and Dr. Marie Couturier (Oral & Gut Microbiota) in the GBMS team.
My research interests include:
- Glycobiology (in particular Glycan-Protein Interactions)
- Metabolism of the Bladder Microbiota
- Reproducibility of Research
You can find my recent presentations: