Photo of Linnea Björk

Linnea Björk

Postdoc

My research focuses on the synthesis of conjugated organic molecules with tunable optical properties, particularly thiophene-based molecules. I study how small structural modifications, such as changes in heterocycles, side chains, or stereochemistry, influence fluorescence, chiroptical response, supramolecular organization, and interactions with biological targets.

The molecules are mainly used as fluorescent ligands for studying protein aggregates associated with neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, enabling optical discrimination between different aggregate structures.

My work lies at the interface of medicinal chemistry and materials science, with a focus on functional molecules for studying complex biological systems.

Publications

2025

Linnea Björk (2025) Proteophenes - Amino Acid Functionalized Thiophene-based Ligands (Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary) https://dx.doi.org/10.3384/9789181181579
Takahiro Watanabe, Priyanka Swaminathan, Linnea Björk, Ayaka Nakanishi, Hisako Sato, Tamotsu Zako, Peter Nilsson, Mikael Lindgren (2025) Spectroscopic Response of Chiral Proteophenes Binding to Two Chiral Insulin Amyloids ChemPhotoChem, Vol. 9, Article e202400225 (Article in journal) https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cptc.202400225

2024

Linnea Björk, Robert Selegård, Marcus Bäck, Per Hammarström, Mikael Lindgren, Peter Nilsson (2024) Amino-Acid Side-Chain Nanoarchitectonics for Tuning the Chiroptical Properties and Supramolecular Structure of Pentameric Oligothiophenes ChemPhotoChem, Vol. 8, Article e202300183 (Article in journal) https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cptc.202300183

2023

Linnea Björk, Therése Klingstedt, Peter Nilsson (2023) Thiophene-Based Ligands: Design, Synthesis and Their Utilization for Optical Assignment of Polymorphic-Disease-Associated Protein Aggregates ChemBioChem, Vol. 24, Article e202300044 (Article, review/survey) https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202300044
Linnea Björk, Hamid Shirani, Yogesh Todarwal, Mathieu Linares, Ruben Vidal, Bernardino Ghetti, Patrick Norman, Therése Klingstedt, K. Peter R. Nilsson (2023) Distinct Heterocyclic Moieties Govern the Selectivity of Thiophene-Vinylene-Based Ligands towards Aß or Tau Pathology in Alzheimer's Disease European Journal of Organic Chemistry, Vol. 26, Article e202300583 (Article in journal) https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejoc.202300583