Björn Karlsson

Björn Karlsson

Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry and Biomedical Sciences Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
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My name is Björn C.G. Karlsson and I hold the position as a senior lecturer of physical chemistry and pharmacy at the Linnæus University. In 2013 I was awarded the title as associate professor (docent) of physical chemistry.

Teaching

I am involved in teaching for students at the pharmacy-, nutrition and food science-, biomedical analytical science- and optometry programmes.

In addition to undergraduate teaching, I also teach at the Chemistry – preparatory course A 7,5 fp (0KE002) which is a course given for student with no previous natural science background.  

I current have the role as course coordinator and examiner for the following undergraduate courses:

  • Organic chemistry A 7,5 credits (1KE010)
  • Galenic physical pharmacy 7,5 credits (1FA002)
  • Physical Chemistry with focus on food chemistry 7,5 credits (1KE018).

In addition to these course at the undergraduate level I am also responsible for courses at the master’s and PhD-student levels:

  • Research methodology in the natural sciences 15 credits (4XN002/4XN502) is a course at the master's and PhD-student level for which I am responsible for the module Laboratory safety 3 credits.
  • Current pure and applied chemistry 15 credits (4KE003/4KE503) is a course given for students at the master's level. In this course I am responsible for  course modules in computational chemistry 3 credits, molecular spectroscopy  3 credits and analytical chemistry with a focus on biosensors 3 credits.

Since 2018 I am also a committee member of a group that is responsible for quality assurance of syllabus at the faculty of health and life science (FHL-KUS).

Research

I have previous experience of performing biophysical studies on drug molecules, proteins and synthetic polymeric materials with a focus on developing new sensor applications and diagnostic methods.

Current research activities are being conducted to obtain a detailed mechanistic description of the molecular origin and spread of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease (PD). One focus is to be able to identify and isolate early formed and soluble protein aggregates that later lead to cellular plaque which  typically are found in the brain of patients suffering form the disease and that will lead to the death of nerve cells. One interesting hypothesis is that one common three dimensional structure, composed of aggregated protein, exist and that this structure share a motif also found in other neurodegenerative disorders. An aim of the performed research is to find this structure. Progress made can potentially aid in the development of novel sensor-based detection methods but also therapeutic strategies for the fight of PD.

Visit the home page of the Physical Pharmacy Laboratory (PPL); see below, for more information on our current research activities.

Publications

Article in journal (Refereed)

Conference paper (Refereed)

Chapter in book (Refereed)

Article, review/survey (Refereed)

Chapter in book (Other academic)

Patent (Other (popular science, discussion, etc.))