JOB DESCRIPTION 

Terje Vasskog is research group leader for the Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry Research Group. He is an Associate Professor in analytical chemistry at the Department of Pharmacy, UiT the Arctic University of Norway. His research involves development of new bioactive peptides, as well as mass spectrometry based structure elucidation of such peptides, and for the last few years he has been working with global metabolomics and lipidomics both within health related research and carbon capture technology.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

1) Structure elucidation and bioactivity optimization of disulphide rich peptides

2) Global metabolomics and lipidomics

3) Method development for targeted and untargeted LC- and GC-MS/MS analyses

RESEARCHGATE: Terje Vasskog

ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS

Structure elucidation, bioactivity screening and optimization of disulphide rich peptides

BMFishFeed: Development of a bacterial meal with a tailored high-lipid content for use as feed additive in aquaculture

AlgScaleUP

TROMBOLOME: The Tromsø study metabolome

Mapping antimicrobial resistance through a mass spectrometry (MS) based multi-omics approach

Investigating the impact of antibiotic and probiotic use on the early life human gut microbiome: A metabolomic approach

 TEACHING

Bachelor level

Far-2302 Pharmaceutical Analysis - Course Manager

Master level

Far-3301 Advanced Pharmaceutical Chemistry - Lectures and lab course

Far-3311 Advanced Analytical Chemistry - Course Manager

Far-3312 Advenced Practical Analytical Chemistry - Lab course

PhD level

Far-8311 Advanced Analytical Chemistry 2 - Lectures

Far-8312 Advanced Practical Analytical Chemistry 2 - Course Manager

• Anabolic steroids and steroid profiling in doping analysis
• Discovery and investigation of metabolites in doping - and forensic analysis
• Investigation of the metabolome and lipidome in inflammatory bowel disease
• Pharmacokinetics – various topics

JOB DESCRIPTION
Morten B. Strøm is Vice-dean Research and Innovation at the Faculty of Health Sciences. He is a professor in medicinal chemistry at the Department of Pharmacy, Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry Research Group. His research involves development of peptides and peptidomimetics with activity against resistant bacteria and with activity against cancer cells. Together with other research groups at UiT we are studying how these molecules can be developed into future drug candidates and drug formulations. This has given important experience with innovation, patents, and commercialization.

Professor at the Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry Research Group.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

1) Design, synthesis and development of antimicrobial and anticancer peptides and peptidomimetics as lead-compounds for drug-development and investigation of pharmacophore models.

2) Design and synthesis of peptidomimetics and bioactive scaffolds for optimization of potency and pharmacokinetic properties.

3) Isolation and structural elucidation of marine bioactive compounds from Arctic and sub-Arctic marine invertebrates and synthesis of marine natural product mimics (marine bio-prospecting).

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1973-0778

PhD student supervision

1. 2000 – 2004: Assistant supervisor for PhD Morten K. Moe - PhD thesis: ESI low-energy tandem MS characterisation of lipids modified by a novel derivatisation method. Financed by the Norwegian Research Council.
2. 2007 – 2010: Assistant supervisor for PhD Margey Tadesse - PhD thesis: Antimicrobial natural products from Arctic and sub-Arctic marine invertebrates. Financed by UiT.
3. 2007 – 2011: Primary supervisor for PhD Terkel Hansen (cand. pharm.) - PhD thesis: Antimicrobial and anticancer beta-peptidomimetics – synthesis and biological evaluation of a new class of small and highly potent compounds. Financed by UiT.
4. 2008 – 2012: Primary supervisor for PhD Dominik A. Ausbacher (cand. pharm.) - PhD Thesis: Biological activity of β^2,2-amino acid derivatives derived from antimicrobial peptides - Investigations of antimicrobial and anticancer activity and the mechanisms of action. Financed by UiT.
5. 2008 – 2013: Primary supervisor for PhD Veronika Tørfoss (cand. pharm.) - PhD thesis: Short anticancer peptides containing a lipophilic β^2,2-amino acid - Synthesis and biological evaluation of linear and cyclic hepta-, hexa-, penta-, and tetrapeptides. Financed by the Norwegian Research Council (KOSK-II program).
6. 2011 – 2015: Assistant supervisor for PhD Elisabeth Klungerbo Olsen (cand. pharm.) - PhD thesis: Bioprospecting of Arctic marine organisms. Financed by MabCent – SFI.
7. 2011 – 2015: Primary supervisor for Elizaveta Mikhailovna Igumnova - Working title: Chemical synthesis, isolation, and structural characterization of marine bioactive hit compounds. Financed by MabCent – SFI.
8. 2012 – 2016: Assistant supervisor for PhD Runar Gjerp Solstad - PhD thesis: Discovery of antimicrobial peptides in two invertebrates, the sea anemone Urticina eques and the sea urchin chinus esculentus - Isolation, characterization and structure-activity relationship studies. Financed by UiT.
9. 2012 – 2017: Primary supervisor for PhD Marianne Hagensen Paulsen - PhD thesis: Synthetic mimics of antimicrobial peptides. Synthesis and biological studies of novel synthetic mimics of antimicrobial peptides. Financed by the Norwegian Research Council (NFR) and UiT - "Fellesløftet".
10. 2014 – 2017: Assistant supervisor for PhD Thomas Aleksander Bakka (NTNU - Trondheim - Norway) - PhD thesis: Synthesis and antimicrobial evaluation of small molecule amphiphiles derived from amphiphilic antimicrobial natural products. Financed by NTNU.
11. 2018 –  in progress: Assistant supervisor for Christoffer Ågnes Sivertsen (Faculty of Bioscience, fisheries, and economics – UiT) – Working title: Antibacterial and antibiofilm compounds in Arctic and sub-Arctic invertebrates. Financed by UiT – The Arctic University of Norway – "Thematic emphasis programme" – AntifoMar.
12. 2018 – 2022: Assistant supervisor for PhD Manuel Karl Langer (Department of chemistry – UiT) – PhD thesis: Marine natural product inspired synthesis towards new antimicrobial and antifouling agents. Financed by UiT – The Arctic University of Norway – "Thematic emphasis programme" - AntifoMar.
13. 2019 – 2023: Assistant supervisor for PhD Susannah von Hofsten (Department of medical biology – UiT) – PhD thesis: Anticancer activity of amphipathic barbiturates. Financed by UiT – The Arctic University of Norway.
14. 2018 – 2023: Primary supervisor for PhD Danijela Simonovic (Department of Pharmacy – UiT) – PhD thesis: Synthesis and structure-activity relationship studies of marine-derived antimicrobial peptides and small cyclic peptidomimetics.  Financed by UiT – The Arctic University of Norway – "Thematic emphasis programme" – LEADScAMR.
15. 2019 – 2024: Assistant supervisor for PhD Ataur Rahman (Faculty of Bioscience, fisheries, and economics – UiT) – PhD thesis: Bioactivity profiling and mode of action studies of antibacterial and antibiofilm agents of marine origin. Financed by UiT – The Arctic University of Norway – "Thematic emphasis programme" – AntifoMar.
16. 2019 – 2024: Assistant supervisor for PhD Hymonti Dey (Faculty of Bioscience, fisheries, and economics – UiT) – PhD thesis: Antimicrobial activities and mechanisms of action of peptide analogues of marine origin. Financed by UiT – The Arctic University of Norway – "Thematic emphasis programme" - LEADScAMR.

Supervision of master students

I have since 2003 been supervisor for 31 master students in pharmacy / medicinal chemistry / organic chemistry.

I have broad scientific interests within various applications of NMR spectroscopy, from small molecules to proteins. Structure/activity relationship studies are of particular interest (x-filtered transfer experiments, hydration, relaxation, dynamics). 

I have been working with NMR since 1998, using both Bruker and Varian/Agilent equipment. Working experience includes structure and dynamics studies of Nucleic acids and Proteins, structure verification/elucidation of small molecules in pharmaceutical industry and natural products from bioprospecting, including absolute configuration, as well molecular interactions with proteins and lipid systems.

Job description:

Assoc. Prof. in the Natural products and Medicinal chemistry group (80%), Dept. Pharmacy, and Senior Researcher in the Chemical synthesis and analysis group (20%), Dept. Chemistry. Leader of the UiT NMR lab, which is a node in the Norwegian NMR Platform (NNP), and manager of the analytical platform SmallStruct.

Teaching:

FAR-2301 Medicinal chemistry - course manager

FAR-3301 Advanced analytical chemistry - course manager

Other teaching activities: Course manager for KJE-3301/8301 NMR spectroscopy, KJE-8305 Advanced NMR spectroscopy, KJE-2003 Analytical chemistry. Teaching contributions in the BioStruct and BioCat research schools on protein folding and protein dynamics. 

JOB DESCRIPTION 

Lisa Myrseth Hemmingsen is a member of the Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry Research Group at the Department of Pharmacy at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Currently, she holds a temporary position as Associate Professor focusing on research in multidisciplinary projects and teaching in chemistry-related courses at BPharm, MPharm, and PhD level. She has a PhD in pharmaceutical technology and her research projects involve targeted analytics and development of pharmaceutical formulations for antimicrobial compounds in treatment of infected, chronic wounds.  

RESEARCH INTERESTS

1) Pharmaceutical technology

2) Nanotechnology

3) Lipid- and polymer-based drug delivery systems

4) Drug delivery of antimicrobial compounds

5) Targeted analytics

RESEARCHGATE: Lisa Myrseth Hemmingsen

ORCID: Lisa Myrseth Hemmingsen

TEACHING

FAR-1101 Introduction to pharmacy (Course leader)

Other teaching experiences

FAR-1301/1401 Physical pharmacy

FAR-1302 Pharmaceutical organic chemistry 

FAR-2401 Basic pharmaceutical production

FAR-2402 Pharmaceutical formulation and biopharmacy

FAR-3202 Pharmacokinetics

FAR-3311 Advanced Analytical Chemistry

FAR-3312 Advanced Practical Analytical Chemistry

FAR-8043 Nanomedicine

FAR-8311 Advanced Analytical Chemistry 2

FAR-8312 Advanced Practical Analytical Chemistry 2

JOB DESCRIPTION

Trude Anderssen is affiliated with the Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry Research Group and teaches at various chemistry-related laboratory courses for pharmacy students. She provides in-house training in HSE for new students/employees at the research group.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

She assists on various research projects, including toxicity testing of synthesis products.

TEACHING

Teaches laboratory courses in the following subjects:

FAR-1302 Pharmaceutical Organic Chemistry
FAR-2301 Medicinal chemistry and natural products chemistry
FAR-2302 Pharmaceutical analysis

Teaching in following subjects:

FAR-1302 Pharmaceutical Organinc Chemistry,

FAR-2301 Medicinal Chemistry and  Natural Products Chemistry

FAR-2302 Pharmaceutical Analysis

- Computational mass spectrometry

- Forensic HRMS drug screening

- Untargeted metabolomics 

Ongoing projects at UiT:

Principal investigator of the multi-disciplinary research project, TROMBOLOME (€1.4 mio funded by the Norwegian Research Council), with the objective to improve data workflows for large-scale untargeted, metabolome data. We aim to build a (structured query language) SQL database of untargeted metabolome data from population study biobank samples, and then combine the biochemical insights from metabolite profiles with health registry data to identify risk markers for acute myocardial infarction. This will improve insight in pathophysiological mechanisms behind and stratification for people at risk for acute myocardial infarction. 

JOB DESCRIPTION

Agnethe Hansen Bæverud is a Research Scientist in the Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry Research Group at the Department of Pharmacy at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Her research projects are focused on exploiting the potential of marine resources as a solution to sustainable value creation in industrial waste management, with the overall scope of transition towards green, circular economy. Her work contributions include analysis of biomolecule composition through global/targeted metabolomics/lipidomics.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

1) Analysis of marine organisms

2) Pigment analysis

3) Global/targeted metabolomics and lipidomics

4) Method development for LC- and GC-MS/MS analyses

RESEARCHGATE: Agnethe Bæverud

ORCID: Agnethe Bæverud

ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS:

BMFishFeed – project description in progress

TEACHING:

Master level:

FAR-3312 Advanced Practical Analytical Chemistry - Lab course 

JOB DESCRIPTION

Torbjørn Norberg Myhre is a member of the Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry Research Group at the Department of Pharmacy at UiT - The Arctic University of Norway. His research projects are focused on the development and validation of methods for a SQL database of untargeted metabolome data from population study biobank samples. 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

1) Untargeted metabolomics

2) Global/targeted metabolomics and lipidomics

3) Method development for LC- and GC-MS/MS analyses

4) Semi-quantification in high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS)

ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS

TROMBOLOME - TROMsø study metaBOLOME is a project that aims to build a SQL database of untargeted metabolome data which can be used with registry data of participants to uncover metabolic patterns associated with myocarial infarction, and as such improve the insight of the pathology of this disease.

TEACHING

Bachelor level

FAR-1302 Pharmacetical organic chemistry

FAR-2301 Medicinal chemistry and natural products chemistry

FAR-2302 Pharmaceutical Analysis

Master level

FAR-3311 Advanced Analytical Chemistry

FAR-3312 Advanced Practical Analytical Chemistry - Lab course 

PhD level

FAR-8311 Advanced Analytical Chemistry 2

FAR-8312 Advanced Practical Analytical Chemistry 2 - Lab course

Job Description:

Marit Huizer is currently pursuing her PhD and is a part of the research group Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry. Her research work is specifically focused on lipid and pigment analysis of marine microalgae and bioactivity studies. All of this is being done under the AlgScaleUP project.

Research Interests:

1. Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry
2. Untargeted Lipidomics
3. Bioprospecting 

ORCID: Marit Huizer

ResearchGate: Marit Huizer

Job Description:

Sandra Pfeffer is part of the research group Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry. Her research work focuses on phase II metabolism studies of endogenous steroids and their applications in doping control analysis.

Research Interests:

1. Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry
2. Metabolism of endogenous steroids
3. Doping control

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Marit Melbye Sørensen is currently pursuing a PhD in biophysical chemistry at the Department of Pharmacy at UiT as a part of the Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry Research Group. The research is focused on developing native bacterial membrane models for studying drug-target binding interactions by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and other analytical techniques.

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

1. Interaction studies by NMR Spectroscopy
2. Method development for determining binding affinities by NMR
3. Bacterial Extracellular Vesicles and Lipid Nanoparticles

TEACHING:

FAR-2301 Medicinal chemistry and natural products chemistry

JOB DESCRIPTION

Kristoffer Prince is currently pursuing a PhD in protein dynamics in the Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry Research Group at the Department of Pharmacy at UiT. The research involves studying conformational entropy and other structural dynamic parameters in enzymes in response to allosteric factors using various NMR spectroscopy methods.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

1) Protein biochemistry and NMR spectroscopy

2) Protein misfolding diseases

3) The effects of enzyme structural dynamics on catalysis

TEACHING

FAR-2301 Medicinal chemistry and natural products chemistry

JOB DESCRIPTION 
Jon Våbenø has an Associate Professor II (20%) position at the Department of Pharmacy, UiT the Arctic University of Norway, in addition to his main position as a research scientist/leader at Helgeland Hospital Trust.
He has a medicinal chemistry background and a general interest in all steps of the drug discovery process, i.e. hit identification, hit-to-lead strategies, and lead optimization.

RESEARCH INTERESTS
His main research interest is pharmacological modulation of the complex chemokine system, which represents attractive drug targets for inflammatory/immunological diseases, cancer, and virus infections:

1) Understand/explain the activation pattern on the molecular level:

• Binding interaction
• Activation mechanisms
• Chemokine selectivity

2) Exploit this knowledge to develop:

• A better understand of the disease processes
• Selective drugs

TEACHING
Bachelor level
FAR-2301 Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products Chemistry – Lectures and seminars
Master level
FAR-3301 Advanced Pharmaceutical Chemistry - Lectures and computerlab

The Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry Research Group teaches and conducts research within two scientific disciplines: medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutical analytical chemistry. Medicinal chemistry comprises design and synthesis of bioactive compounds with potential as new drugs, as well as structure-activity studies. Pharmaceutical analytical chemistry comprises qualitative and quantitative analyses of biological compounds based on chromatographic, mass spectrometric, and spectroscopic methods.