Position: (2014-present) Research Associate, Michael Smith Laboratories, UBC
Janine.copp[at]msl.ubc.ca
Link: Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Twitter
Positions held:
(2008-2013) Postdoctoral Fellow, NZ Cancer Society Fellow, Victoria University of Wellington, NZ
Education:
2006: Ph.D. in Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Australia
2000: B.Sc. (Honours, first class) in Biochemistry. University of Otago, New Zealand
Research Interests:
I am fascinated by the cryptic details that connect sequence, structure, and function; I aim to harness this information to gain fundamental understanding and provide new tools for biotechnological and biomedical applications. I specialize in advanced molecular biology and computational techniques, such as sequence similarity networks, which I employ to discover, characterize, and evolve enzymes. In particular, I exploit the global context of enzyme superfamilies and metabolic pathways to unravel the underlying molecular mechanisms of enzyme function and evolution.
At present, after comprehensive computational investigation of the FMN dependent nitroreductase (NTR) superfamily, I am examining the activity profiles of >600 NTR enzymes to facilitate the first high resolution analysis of NTR functional diversity.
Recent Publications:
Akiva E#, Copp JN#, and Tokuriki N, and Babbitt P. Evolutionary and molecular foundations of multiple contemporary functions of the nitroreductase superfamily. PNAS, in press, 2017 #Joint first authorship
Copp JN#, Mowday AM#, Williams EM, Guise CP, Ashoorzadeh A, Flanagan JU, Smaill JB, Patterson AV and Ackerley DF. 2017. Engineering a multifunctional nitroreductase for cancer gene therapy. Cell Chemical Biology. 24(3):391-403 #Joint first authorship
Baier F, Copp JN, and Tokuriki, N. 2016. Evolution of Enzyme Superfamilies: Comprehensive Exploration of Sequence−Function Relationships. Biochemistry. 55:6375-6388.
Mowday AM, Ashoorzadeh A, Williams EM, Copp JN, Silva S, Bull MR, Abbattista MR, Anderson RF, Flanagan JU, Guise CP, Ackerley DF, Smaill JB, and Patterson AV. 2016. Rational design of an AKR1C3-resistant analog of PR-104 for enzyme-prodrug therapy. Biochemical Pharmacology. 16:30191-5
Williams EM, Little RF, Mowday AM, Rich MH, Chan-Hyams JVE, Copp JN, Smaill JB, Patterson AV and Ackerley DF. 2015. Nitroreductase gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy: insights and advances toward clinical utility. Biochem Journal. 471:131-153
Copp JN, Williams EM, Rich MH, Patterson AV, Smaill JB and Ackerley DF. 2014. Toward a high-throughput screening platform for directed evolution of enzymes that activate genotoxic prodrugs. Protein Eng Des Sel. 10:399-403
Copp JN, Hanson-Manful P, Ackerley D and Patrick, WM. 2014. Error-prone PCR and effective generation of variant gene libraries for directed evolution. Methods Mol Biol. 1179:3-22.
Williams EM, Copp JN, Ackerley DF. 2014. Site-saturation mutagenesis by overlap extension PCR. Methods Mol Biol. 1179:83-101.
Prosser GA, Copp JN, Mowday AM, Guise CP, Syddall SP, Horvat CN, Swe PM, Ashoorzadeh A, Denny WA, Smaill JB, Patterson AV, and DF Ackerley. 2013. Creation and screening of a multifamily bacterial oxidoreductase library to discover novel nitroreductases that efficiently activate the bioreductive prodrugs CB1954 and PR-104A. Biochem Pharmacol. 85:1091-103
Green LK, Storey MA, Williams EM, Patterson AV, Smaill JB, Copp JN and DF Ackerley. 2013. The flavin reductase MsuE is a novel nitroreductase that can efficiently activate two promising next-generation prodrugs for gene directed enzyme prodrug therapy. Cancers. 5:985-997
Swe PM#, Copp JN#, Green LK, Guise CP, Mowday AM, Smaill JB, Patterson AV, and DF Ackerley. 2012. Targeted mutagenesis of the Vibrio fischeri flavin reductase FRase I to improve activation of the anticancer prodrug CB1954. Biochem Pharmacol. 84:775-83. #Joint first authorship
Owen JG, Copp JN, and DF Ackerley. 2011. Rapid and flexible biochemical assays for evaluating 4′-phosphopantetheinyl transferase activity. Biochemical Journal. 436:709-719.
Prosser GA, Copp JN, Syddall SP, Williams EM, Smaill JB, Wilson WR, Patterson AV, and DF Ackerley. 2010. Discovery and evaluation of Escherichia coli nitroreductases that activate the anti-cancer prodrug CB1954. Biochem Pharmacol. 79: 678-87.
Books
Directed Evolution – Library Creation. Methods and Protocols. 2nd Edition. Editors: Gillam EMJ, Copp JN and Ackerley DF. 2014. Springer-Verlag New York.
Patents
PCT/NZ2015/050192 “Antibacterial Compositions”.
Inventors: DF Ackerley and JN Copp. Filed 18 May 2016.
WO/2016/080846 “Antimicrobial compounds”.
Inventors: DF Ackerley and JN Copp. Published May 26 2016.
WO2014031012 A1: “Novel prodrugs and methods of use thereof”.
Inventors: DF Ackerley, A Ashoorzadeh, JN Copp, CP Guise, AM Mowday, AV Patterson, JB Smaill, EM Williams. Filed 22 August 2013.
WO2014007650 A1: “Compounds and methods for selective imaging and/or ablation”. Inventors: DF Ackerley, RN Anderson, A Ashoorzadeh, JN Copp, WR Dolbier, CP Guise, A Kachur, C Koch, AM Mowday, AV Patterson, JB Smaill, EM Williams. Filed 21 December 2012.
WO/2012/008860-A2/A3: “Bacterial nitroreductase enzymes and methods relating thereto”. Inventors: DF Ackerley, A Ashoorzadeh, JN Copp, JU Flanagan, AM Mowday, AV Patterson, GA Prosser, JB Smaill, SP Syddall, EM Williams. Published January 2012.
WO 2008119134 A1: “Methods for producing secondary metabolites”.
Inventors: BA Neilan, A Roberts, JN Copp. Published October 2008.