![]() Prof. Dr. Jérôme Comte (contact)
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Research
I am associate professor at Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), Centre Eau-Terre-Environnement in Quebec City. I am a microbial ecologist with interests in identifying the processes that shape and drive microbial communities. My research focuses on aquifers, lakes, ponds, rivers, soils and sediments in temperate, boreal and Arctic regions and combines field and experimental approaches. Before joining INRS, I worked as research scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) in Burlington, Ontario where I led the genomics laboratory focusing on the study of harmful algal and cyanobacterial blooms in the Canadian Great Lakes. |
Education
My PhD studies, under the supervision of Paul del Giorgio at Université du Québec À Montréal, focused on the response of aquatic bacteria to environmental changes from the single-cell to community levels with a particular emphasis on the role community composition in mediating this response. I then conducted postdoctoral studies at Uppsala University (Sweden) with Eva S. Lindström and Silke Langenheder focusing on bacterial biogeography and the role of dispersal to the response of aquatic bacteria to environmental change. I also held a Fonds de Recherche du Québec, Nature et Technologie (FRQNT) postdoctoral fellowship at Université Laval with Warwick F. Vincent and Connie Lovejoy where I applied metacommunity theory to northern aquatic ecosystems in the context of global warming. |
Research assistants
Maude Pomerlau
Microbiologist After completing a bachelor's degree in microbiology at the University of Sherbrooke, Maude pursued her master's studies in the laboratory of Pascale B. Beauregard, where she studied plant-bacteria interactions and specialized her molecular biology techniques. As a research assistant, she is responsible for the general management of the lab and is currently working on the RosHAB project.
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Thomas Deschenes
Bioinformatician Thomas has a B.Sc. in biomedical sciences in which he concentrated in bioinformatics and a M.Sc. on the themes of gut microbiome, human health and artificial intelligence, obtained at Laval University. He specializes in the analysis of microbial genomics data and their valorisation by machine learning approaches. As a research assistant, Thomas supports the team for various bioinformatics tasks.
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Students
Charis Wong
PhD student Charis did her BSc (Geology & Chemistry) and MSc (Geochemistry with First Class Honours) at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Before returning to pursue her doctoral degree, Charis has worked as a geothermal geochemist at a NZ geothermal power company for 6.5 years, looking after the chemical challenges at the power plants as well as the deep subsurface resources (>300oC), such as corrosion and scaling, brine-steam interactions. In her doctoral project, she focuses on understanding the influence of groundwater heat pump system on the aquifer ecosystem. Charis has a particular interest in understanding the two-way interactions between operations and the aquatic ecosystems, and microbially mediated chemical reactions.
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Emmy Hallett
PhD student Emmy completed her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which was earned while studying the model crenarchaeota Sulfolobus islandicus. Currently, Emmy’s doctoral thesis is centered around understanding how climate change, namely permafrost thaw and water brownification, shift both the composition and functioning of arctic lake microbial communities over time. Lakes of particular interest to her project are clear water glacial lakes located on Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada.
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Martial Leroy
PhD student After a bachelor's degree in marine science, with a biological oceanography option, Martial pursued his master's degree in biodiversity modeling at the University of Grenoble-Alpes. He was lucky enough to be able to complete his course with numerous internships in very diverse structures and projects, from the study of trout repopulation in Lake Geneva to the nitrifying bacteria of the Norwegian fjords. Martial has a particular interest in the microbial world and its interactions with the major biogeochemical cycles, especially in the Arctic where he has studied the interactions of nutrient recycling between microalgae and bacteria. It is in this context that he arrived in the Belle Province for his PhD focusing on the microbiome of arctic and subarctic thermokarst ponds ecosystems in the team of Prof. Comte.
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Aurélie Beaulieu-Laliberté
Master student Aurélie has a bachelor in Biology from Laval University, during which she worked on the bacterial community associated with boreal lichens. She is currently doing a Master in Water sciences with a focus on the microbial communities in a constructed wetland system for the remediation of oil sand process-affected waters. |
Christophe Langevin
PhD student Christophe completed his bachelor's degree in geological engineering with a specialization in environment and water resources at Laval University. He then continued his graduate studies with a master's degree in the theme of water sciences. He was particularly interested in the characterization via next-generation sequencing and microscopic analysis of the temporal and spatial variation of phytoplankton diversity, including cyanobacteria in the lakes of southern Quebec. A large-scale project that allowed him to make an accelerated transition to the doctorate. The doctoral project that Christophe is currently carrying out is a project in collaboration with the Centre d’Expertise en Analyse environnementale du Québec (CEAEQ). He is currently interested in the state of health of Quebec lakes defined by their microbiome and their responses to disturbances. He has a strong interest in environmental genomics, microbial ecology and climate change.
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Cassandre Madru
Master student Cassandre has a Bachelor of Life Sciences with a specialization in organisms and ecosystems from the University of Bordeaux.
She is currently doing a Master in water sciences at INRS and a Master in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Chemistry at the University of Bordeaux. Her Masters focus on the assessment of the ecological risk of mining effluents on aquatic ecosystems, by evaluating the effects on stream biofilm through a multi-descriptor biomonitoring approach. |
Interns
Zakary is currently a 2nd year student in a biology bachelor at Laval University. Passionate and interested about biology at large, he decided to dig a bit deeper into the world of microbiology by joining Comte’s lab in order to complete an internship (fall 2023 and winter 2024). So far, he’s mainly been working on the RosHAB project alongside Naíla Barbosa da Costa.
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Postdocs
Naíla Barbosa da Costa
Postdoctoral fellow Naíla has been driven by her curiosity to understand how the microbial world changes in response to environmental disturbances. Her research in the Comte lab focuses on the genomics of bloom-forming cyanobacteria, which are predicted to increase their dominance in temperate lakes with climate change. As an ecologist, she is also interested by cyanobacteria in the immediately surrounding environment, also known as the phycosphere - in analogy to the rhizosphere in plants, where we observe ecological interactions between the autotroph host and associated microorganisms. Google Scholar Personal website |
Valentine Cyriaque
Postdoctoral fellow After her PhD. at UMONS in Belgium, where she focused on the adaptation of a sedimentary microbial community to metal contamination, Valentine oriented her research to the ecology of mobile genetic elements (the mobile), their interactions with their bacterial host and the role they play in the response of microbial communities to a changing environement. Valentine's research in Comte's lab focusses on the mobilome of arctic and subarctic thermokarst ponds in a transitioning permafrost.
Google Scholar |
Former members
Xiangbo has a Ph.D. in environmental science from UQAT-UQAM in Canada. His research interests include understanding and evaluating the effects of human activities (e.g., mining) on the environment using various indicators of vascular plants, bryophytes, and microbiota, and developing associated management strategies. He is currently working on the microbial degradation of naphthenic acids in constructed wetland of an oil sand mine. He also works on offsite effects of mines on mining effects on soil properties and the taxonomy and evolution of Aneuraceae (bryophyte).
ResearchGate Google Scholar |
After completing a bachelor's degree in biology at the University of Mons (Belgium), Anne-Charlotte is currently pursuing a master's degree in biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology at the same university. Intrigued by the world of research, she has punctuated her bachelor's degree with various internships in research. Finally convinced that she wanted to make a career out of it, she wanted to think bigger by doing an internship with the LabComte team. This internship allowed her to work on the exploratory phase of the project dealing with mobile genetic elements, more specifically on plasmid transfers. She also had the opportunity to work on metagenomics and northern soil profiles. A very rewarding internship in all the aspects she was able to explore!
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Sarika Beauchemin
Intern (Summer 2023) Second-year student in a biology science baccalaureate at Université de Montréal, Sarika would like to pursue her studies in the water science field after discovering a special interest in limnology and microbiology. She is currently working as an intern student on cyanobacteria cryopreservation and others related projects in the lab. |
Maxence Poirier-Joanette
Intern (Summer 2023) 3rd year student at the University of Ottawa, pursuing an Honours Bachelor of Science in Biology (Co-op) and Minor in History. Maxence is has a keen interest for limnology and microbiology. He is working in Jerome Comte's laboratory as a student intern on microbial biodiversity in lakes. |
Paula Reis
Postdoctoral fellow (2022) As a postdoctoral fellow in Comte’s lab, Paula worked on the microbial degradation of toxic organic compounds (namely naphthenic acids) for water treatment by bioremediation. She was also involved in another project looking at the cumulative impacts of climate and anthropogenic pressures on aquatic microbial communities in the Northwestern territories. ResearchGate Google Scholar |