Jason William Labonte

Jason William Labonte serves as an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department within the School of Arts, Sciences & Business at Notre Dame of Maryland University (NDMU). His research integrates computational and experimental approaches to advance understanding of carbohydrate biochemistry and enzyme mechanisms.

Dr. Labonte's educational background includes:

• B.S. in Biochemistry from Grove City College, Grove City, PA
• Ph.D. in Chemistry from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

His research program focuses on bioorganic chemistry and biomolecular modeling, with specialization in carbohydrate structures and post-translational modifications. Key initiatives include developing computational tools within the Rosetta suite for glycan modeling, creating glycoengineering algorithms, and studying megasynthase enzyme mechanisms. His work bridges computational prediction with biochemical validation to address challenges in glycoscience.

Analysis of his 11 publications (2013-2021) reveals dominant themes in computational carbohydrate modeling, particularly protein-glycan interactions (45% of works), glycoengineering applications (30%), and educational tool development for biomolecular design (15%). His research consistently leverages the Rosetta software platform while expanding into glycosyltransferase specificity and antibiotic resistance mechanisms.

Dr. Labonte actively contributes to the scientific community through membership on the Rosetta Commons Executive Board and the D2D CURE Network, demonstrating commitment to collaborative computational biology initiatives and undergraduate research education.

His professional activities include developing course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) in computational biochemistry and mentoring students through projects involving glycan docking algorithms and enzyme engineering. Current research directions focus on expanding glycoengineering capabilities within the Rosetta framework and exploring applications in metabolic disease modeling.

Dr. Labonte leads a research group focused on computational glycochemistry at NDMU, collaborating with the Rosetta Commons consortium on macromolecular modeling standards. His team specializes in developing open-source tools for carbohydrate structure prediction and design, with particular emphasis on making these resources accessible to undergraduate researchers.