Marc Aucoin

Marc Aucoin is the Associate Chair, Operations and a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering. He specializes in Biochemical Engineering, particularly in cell culture engineering for the production of complex biologics: from proteins (projects have included work on myristoylated proteins, antibodies and other immune-system related proteins), to DNA, to virus-like particles, viruses and viral vectors.

Professor Aucoin’s research work makes use of several cell culture platforms including insect (Sf9, Hi5) and mammalian cells (CHO, Vero). One aspect of Prof. Aucoin's work involves the use of 1D-1H NMR for optimizing cell culture processes.

Through his work with viruses, Prof. Aucoin has also gained an interest in examining the stability of virus in complex solutions including cell culture media. This has led to collaborations with industry in the area of virus inactivation and virus control.

At the University, Prof. Aucoin is also a Faculty Advisor for the university’s international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition student team. Prof. Aucoin is an active member of the Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology and the Waterloo Centre for Microbial Research. He is also a member of the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology. More information can be found on his personal website.