Harry Brumer

Dr. Harry Brumer is a Professor in the Michael Smith Laboratories and Department of Chemistry, and an Associate Member of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Brumer’s research interests include the discovery, functional and structural characterization, and biotechnological applications of carbohydrate-active enzymes and carbohydrate-binding proteins.

His group is studying the molecular mechanisms by which complex carbohydrate (“dietary fibre”) metabolism fuels the human gut microbiota, and is harnessing this emergent knowledge to improve health through the development of novel gastrointestinal drug delivery strategies.

For an up-to-date list of publications by Dr. Brumer, please see Brumer Lab.

Recent Publications

Larsbrink, J., Rogers, T.E., Hemsworth, G.R., McKee, L.S., Tauzin, A.S., Spadiut, O., Klinter, S., Pudlo, N.A., Urs, K., Koropatkin, N.M., Creagh, A.L., Haynes, C.A., Kelly, A.G., Nilsson Cederholm, S., Davies, G.J.*, Martens, E.C.*, Brumer, H.* (2014) A discrete genetic locus confers xyloglucan metabolism in select human gut Bacteroidetes. Nature, 506, 498–502. DOI:10.1038/nature12907 (Press releases: UBC, MSL, University of York, KTH; Spotlight: Trends Biochem. Sci.; Recommended: F1000Prime; Headline: UniProt release 2014_03).

Tamura, K., Hemsworth, G.R., Déjean, G., Rogers, T.E., Pudlo, N.A., Urs, K., Jain, N., Davies, G.J., Martens, E.C., Brumer, H.* (2017) Molecular mechanism by which prominent human gut Bacteroidetes utilize mixed-linkage beta-glucans, major health-promoting cereal polysaccharides, Cell Reports, 21, 417-430. DOI:10.1016/j.celrep.2017.09.049.

Grondin, J.M., Tamura, K., Déjean, G., Abbott, D.W.*, Brumer, H.* (2017) Polysaccharide Utilization Loci: Fuelling microbial communities. J. Bacteriol., 99, e00860-16. DOI:10.1128/JB.00860-16.

Déjean, G., Tauzin, A.S., Bennett, S.W., Creagh, A.L., Brumer, H.* (2019) Adaptation of Syntenic Xyloglucan Utilization Loci of Human Gut Bacteroidetes to Polysaccharide Side Chain Diversity. Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 85, e01491-19. DOI:10.1128/AEM.01491-19 (selected as a Spotlight Article and for the front cover image in this issue).

Mollerup, F., Aumala, V., Parikka, K., Mathieu, Y., Brumer, H., Tenkanen, M., Master, E.* (2019) A family AA5_2 carbohydrate oxidase from Penicillium rubens displays functional overlap across the AA5 family. PLoS One, 14, e0216546. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0216546.

Tauzin, A.S., Kwiatkowski, K.J., Orlovsky, N.I., Smith, C.J., Creagh, A.L., Haynes, C.A., Wawrzak, Z., Brumer, H.*, Koropatkin, N.M.* (2016) Molecular dissection of xyloglucan recognition in a prominent human gut symbiont. mBio, 7, e02134-15. DOI:10.1128/mBio.02134-15.