Multidisciplinary Applied Chemistry – Design and Synthesis of tools for Molecular Biology, Diagnostics and Therapeutics, as well as Bioelectronics and Biotechnology
My academic journey and research
I was born and raised in Linköping, but from 1996 to 2000, I went to Kalmar to study Chemistry at Linnaeus University and I performed my Master project in Chemistry at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. In 2001, I return to Linköping and started my Ph. D. studies at the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM), Linköping University (LiU) My mission as a Ph. D. student was to explore if conjugated polymers, a class of molecules frequently used in devices, such as solar cells and light emitting diodes, for organic electronics, could be applied as biosensors. I received my Ph.D. in Biomolecular and Organic Electronics in 2005. After receiving a multidisciplinary post-doctoral scholarship from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW), my academic carrier continued as a post-doc fellow in the research group of Prof. Adriano Aguzzi, at the Institute of Neuropathology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland and the aim of my project was to explore how luminescent conjugated oligo- and polythiophenes (LCOs) could be utilized as fluorescent ligands for revealing the pathological processes of the infectious prion diseases, such as Mad Cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, as well as other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
In 2008, I yet again returned to LiU, to start my own independent research group in organic chemistry at IFM and I was recruited within a novel program, LiU fo-ass, that aimed at fostering the next generation of research leaders at LiU. In addition, I also received the INGVAR CARLSSON award “ICA2” from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF), a research grant that aims to attract qualified postdoctoral researchers from abroad to start an independent, creative research career at a Swedish university. Due to my multidisciplinary academic track record, I have achieved valuable knowledge within a lot of different research areas including organic chemistry, biochemistry, applied physics, molecular biology and pathology, so it was obvious to continue to perform cross-disciplinary science. Hence, our research activities lie at the intersection of chemistry, physics, biochemistry materials science, and medicine, as our focus is to design and synthesize molecules that can be implemented within molecular biology, medicine, bioelectronics and biotechnology. Our research group therefore consists of researchers with a variety of scientific expertise’s and we also have several national and international academic collaborators within different areas of research.
I have been a professor of organic chemistry since 2015 and over the years, I have received numerous prestigious grants, including ERC-starting grant (European Research Council), Future Scientific Leaders 4 (SSF) and a VR consolidator grant (The Swedish Research Council) and over the years, our research have also been supported by research grants from the Swedish Research
Council, the Swedish Brain Foundation, the Swedish Alzheimer Foundation, the Swedish Parkinson foundation, the Torsten Söderberg Foundation, the Erling Persson Foundation, Konung Gustaf V:s och Drottning Victorias Foundation, STINT - The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education, the Promobilia foundation, the JM Dahls foundation, as well as the National Institute of Healths (NIH) and JPND research, an EU joint programme for neurodegenerative disease research. From a scientific perspective, our research tools have especially been transformative for studying disease-associated protein aggregates and at the moment we are highly focused on developing these tools further to generate the next generation of theranostics, combined therapeutics and diagnostic, that can aid in combating neurodegenerative diseases, such as AD.
Teaching
I am also involved in teaching activities related to different topics in chemistry. At the moment, I am responsible, as well as examiner, for Pharmaceutical Development (NKED20), Applied Chemistry (NKED24) and Molecular Synthesis (NKED26). My core philosophy in chemistry education is that “as a chemist you can do a lot of fun”, and as long as you understand the connection between synthesis, function and applications of molecules, you can work and apply your knowledge within pharmaceutical, forensic, environmental or material chemistry, as well as be involved in multidisciplinary research.
Innovations
Several of our academic findings are now being commercialized within the following spin-off companies: Ebba Biotech AB and Celluminova AB.
