Christopher Corbeil

Roles and responsibilities

Dr. Corbeil is currently a Research Officer in the Molecular Modeling Group and who specializes in the development and application of computational tools for the design of protein therapeutics. He is also an affiliate member of the McGill Biochemistry Department. After receiving his PhD from McGill University, he joined the NRC as a Research Associate investigating the physics behind how proteins interact with therapeutics. Following his time at the NRC he joined Chemical Computing Group as a research scientist developing tools for protein engineering, structure prediction and binding affinity. He then decided to leave private industry and rejoin the NRC with a focus on antibody engineering.

Current research and/or projects

Dr. Corbeil plays a key role in computer-designed development of Antibody Therapeutics at HHT. In this role he leads and supports both internal and external projects. He is currently leading the pus towards the incorporation of ML/AI methods for antibody design, optimization and manufacturing while still supporting the protein structural needs of HHT.

Education

  • 2009: Ph.D. in Chemistry, McGill University, Supervisor Dr. Nicolas Moitessier
  • 2004: B.Sc.(Hons.) in Chemistry, Saint Mary’s University, Supervisor, Dr. Corey Pye

Professional activities/interests

Committees:

  • 02/2021-Present: NRC-HHT Wellness Committee, NRC-HHT
  • 02/2010-06/2013: Chair, Montreal Computer-Aided Drug Design Committee
  • 07/2011-03/2012: Co-Chair, CADD: Hopes Reality and Prospects, ACS San Diego
  • 09/2006-08/2007: Co-Chair, McGill Chemistry Students Invited Lecture Series, McGill University
  • 10/2005-11/2005: Website & Abstract Design, 16th QOMSBOC, McGill University
  • 06/2005-05/2006: President, McGill Chemistry Graduate Student Society, McGill University
  • 06/2002-06/2004: Chair, 2004 Atlantic Student Chemistry Conference, Saint Mary’s University
  • 05/2001-04/2004: President, Saint Mary’s University Chemistry Society, Saint Mary’s University

Academic Affiliations:

  • 09/2021-Present: Affiliate Member, Department of Biochemistry, McGill University

Instructor/Lecturer:

  • 06/2022-05/2022: Instructor, Introduction to Machine Learning for Biologics Design
    Cambridge Healthtech Institute, USA, (15-30 students/year)
  • 09/2020-Present: Course Lecturer BTEC650, McGill University (10 students/year)
  • 01/2016-Present: Course Lecturer BIOC605, McGill University (10 students/year)
  • 09/2015-Present: Course Lecturer PHAR505, McGill University (70-90 students/year)
  • 05/2017-05/2022: Instructor, Introduction to Structure-Based Drug Design and Development
    Cambridge Healthtech Institute, USA, (15-30 students/year)
  • 09/2017-11/2017: Instructor, Introduction to Structure-Based Drug Design and Development,
    NRC-HHT, (30-40 students)

Key publications

33 Total; 32 Published; 1 submitted; 11 Lead Author

  1. *** Gaudreault, F., Corbeil, C. R. & Sulea, T. Enhanced antibody-antigen structure prediction from molecular docking using AlphaFold2. BioRxiv 2022.12.26.521961 (2022). doi:10.1101/2022.12.26.521961 submitted to Sci Rep
    This work is the first example of how AlphaFold2 could be applied successfully to the field of Antibody:Antigen complex prediction[MM1] . This work clearly demonstrates that deep learning can be successful at identifying good antibody:antigen complexes. This will allow us to integrate with experimental methods where 3D information of the antibody will prove useful, such as antibody engineering and epitope mapping.
  2. *** Corbeil, C. R., Manenda, M. S., Sulea, T., Baardsnes, J., Picard, M.-È., Hogues, H., Gaudreault, F., Deprez, C., Shi, R. & Purisima, E. O. Redesigning an antibody H3 loop by virtual screening of a small library of human germline-derived sequences. Sci Rep 11, 21362 (2021).
    This work was the culmination of the next generation of ADAPT, incorporating the ability to vary CDRH3 sequences along with being the first example of using naïve H3 sequences for computational antibody design[MM2] . This work further enhances ADAPT platform allows us to patent-hop through re-engineering the CDR-H3 of known antibodies.
  3. Sulea, T., Rohani, N., Baardsnes, J., Corbeil, C. R., Deprez, C., Cepero-Donates, Y., Robert, A., Schrag, J. D., Parat, M., Duchesne, M., Jaramillo, M. L., Purisima, E. O. & Zwaagstra, J. C. Structure-based engineering of pH-dependent antibody binding for selective targeting of solid-tumor microenvironment. MAbs 12, 1682866 (2020).
  4. Hogues, H., Gaudreault, F., Corbeil, C. R., Deprez, C., Sulea, T. & Purisima, E. O. ProPOSE: Direct exhaustive protein-protein docking with side chain flexibility. J Chem Theory Comput 14, 4938--4947 (2018).
  5. Vivcharuk, V., Baardsnes, J., Deprez, C., Sulea, T., Jaramillo, M., Corbeil, C. R., Mullick, A., Magoon, J., Marcil, A., Durocher, Y., Connor-McCourt, M. D. O. & Purisima, E. O. Assisted Design of Antibody and Protein Therapeutics (ADAPT). Plos One 12, e0181490 (2017). [35]
  6. Sulea, T., Vivcharuk, V., Corbeil, C. R., Deprez, C. & Purisima, E. O. Assessment of Solvated Interaction Energy Function for Ranking Antibody-Antigen Binding Affinities. J Chem Inf Model 56, 1292--1303 (2016).
  7. *** Corbeil, C. R., Williams, C. I.. & Labute, P. Variability in docking success rates due to dataset preparation. J Comput Aid Mol Des 26, 775--86 (2012).
    This is the publication of the GBVI/WSA scoring function that has been used by many pharmaceutical companies for the design and identification of novel small-molecule drugs
  8. Corbeil, C. R., Thielges, S., Schwartzentruber, J. a J. A. & Moitessier, N. Toward a computational tool predicting the stereochemical outcome of asymmetric reactions: development and application of a rapid and accurate program based on organic principles. Angewandte Chemie Int Ed 47, 2635--8 (2008).
  9. Moitessier, N., Englebienne, P., Lee, D., Lawandi, J. & Corbeil, C. R. Towards the development of universal, fast and highly accurate docking/scoring methods: a long way to go. Brit J Pharmacol 153 Suppl, S7--26 (2008). [645]
  10. *** Corbeil, C. R., Englebienne, P. & Moitessier, N. Docking ligands into flexible and solvated macromolecules. 1. Development and validation of FITTED 1.0. J Chem Inf Model 47, 435--49 (2007).
    This one paper is at the Core of Molecular Forecaster platform that has led to a Canadian start up (Molecular Forecaster, https://molecularforecaster.com/) and the foundation of all the research that followed within the Moitessier Research Group at McGill Universit

Previous work experience

  • 08/2014-Present: Associate Research Officer, NRC-HHT (Royalmount)
  • 09/2010-08/2014: Research Scientist, Chemical Computing Group, Montreal, Canada
  • 01/2009-09/2010: Research Associate, NRC-BRI
  • 09/2004-04/2004: Teaching Assistant, McGill University (Chemistry), Montreal Canada
  • 09/2000-08/2004: Research Assistant, Saint Mary’s University (Chemistry), Halifax, Canada
Christopher Corbeil

Christopher Corbeil

Senior Research Officer
Human Health Therapeutics
6100 Royalmount Avenue
Montreal, Quebec H4P 2R2
Preferred language: English
Telephone: 514-719-1339

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Expertise

Sciences, Scientific research