Björn Karlsson

Dear student or colleague!
My name is Björn C.G. Karlsson and I currently hold the position as a senior lecturer of physical chemistry and pharmacy at the Linnæus University. In 2013 I was awarded the title as an associate professor (docent) in physical chemistry.

Mobile number: +46 72-221 82 25

Teaching

To date I'm coordinating and having the role as an examiner for a series of undergraduate courses such as Organic Chemistry 7,5 credits (1KE010), Pharmaceutics 7,5 credits (1FA002) and Physical Chemistry 7,5 credits (1KE002). In addition to these courses on the undergraduate-level I'm also coordinating courses on the advanced level such as Research Methodology in the Natural Sciences 15 credits (4XN002), a course given to PhD-students and students on the Master-level. I currently also coordinating Computational Chemistry 3 credits, Molecular Spectroscopy 3 credits and Analytical Chemistry with a Focus on Biosensors 3 credits. All these three courses being sub-courses on the advanced-level course Current Pure and Applied Chemistry 15 credits (4KE003).

Research

My background is within the bioorganic and biophysical research field from which I've won experience in physical studies of drug molecules as well as polymeric materials. These systems have predominantly been studied by a series of theoretical methods based on quantum-mechanical ab-initio calculations and classical-mechanical molecular dynamics simulations. Experimental studies have in part been focused at polymer synthesis as well as physical characterization using molecular spectroscopic methods such as  NMR-, FT-IR-, UV/Vis-absorption- and fluorescence spectroscopy (steady-state as well as time-resolved techniques).

My current research interests are multiple and I) focused to understand the mechanisms involved in the devlopment of Parkinson's Disease, a project that is conducted in close-collaboration with Med Dr Thomas Näsström and in which we together are trying to find answers to the important questions on what causes a nerve cell to die and how a infected cell can spread the disease? II) In another project we are trying to understand the mechanisms involved and that can explain the selectivity displayed by the membrane proteins that belong to 'Major Facilitator Superfamily' (MFS) and that regulate the very important transport of nutrients in and out of our cells. This project is performed in close-collaboration with Professor Bengt Persson and Dr Dieter Samyn and that initially has been focused at studies on Pho84, a protein that regulates the transport of inorganic phosphate in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

In my research I also have III) an interest in studies that shed light on fundamental physical-chemical questions as an example current research is being conducted trying to answer the question on how the molecular structure of small organic drug molecules affects their solubility as well as  their evaporation from non-ideal mixtures, properties that are of importance for drug development and formulation.

To read more about my current research activities, please visit the Physical Pharmacy Laboratory (PPL) research group, see below.