Danijela Simonovic

Avhandlingen er tilgjengelig her! / The doctoral thesis is available here!

Auditoriet er åpent for publikum. Disputasen vil strømmes og et opptak vil være tilgjengelig i et døgn.
The auditorium is open to the public. The defense will still be streamed, and a recording of the disputation will be available for 24 hours.

Prøveforelesning over oppgitt emne starter kl. 10.15 / The trial lecture starts at 10.15
Tittel/Title: «Peptides as therapeutics»
Prøveforelesningen strømmes her / The trial lecture will be streamed here

Disputasen starter kl. 12.15 / The defense starts at 12.15
Disputasen strømmes her / The defense will be streamed here

De som ønsker å opponere ex auditorio kan sende e-post til leder av disputasen. 
Opponents’ ex auditorio should sign up to leader of defense by e-mail to: lars.smabrekke@uit.no

Populærvitenskapelig sammendrag av avhandlingen/ Summary of the thesis

Effective medicines used to prevent and treat infections (antibiotics) are the very core of modern medicine.  However, systemic overuse and misuse of antibiotics in human medicine, as well as in animal husbandry have led to widespread antibiotic resistance.When bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, even minor infections could become life-threatening. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new treatment options to conventional antibiotics.  Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are one such option. These compounds play an important part of the natural defense system of different organisms. Despite their potential as drug candidates, their application has been hindered by several obstacles, one of them being low selectivity for bacterial cells over mammalian cells.

The aim of this work was to gain deeper understanding of how different structural modifications relate to AMPs properties, such as their potency and haemolytic toxicity.

Our results demonstrated that simple sequence alterations could serve as a useful tool in designing relatively potent, non-haemolytic antimicrobial agents.

Veiledere/ Supervisors:
Hovedveileder/Main supervisor:
Professor Morten Bøhmer Strøm, Institutt for farmasi, , Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.
Biveiledere/supervisors:
Professor Tor Haug, Norges fiskerihøgskole,  UiT Norges arktiske universitet.
Professor Annette Bayer, Institutt for kjemi, UiT Norges arktiske universitet
Dr. Marianne Hagensen Paulsen, Institutt for farmasi, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet

Bedømmelseskomité/Defensecomitee:
Professor Alesia A. Tietze, Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Gothenburg & Wallenberg Centre for Molecular and Translational Medicine – 1. opponent.
Førsteamanuensis Paul Robert Hansen, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen  – 2. opponent.
Førsteamanuensis Ann Mari Holsæter, Institutt for farmasi, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet – leder av komité.

Disputasleder/ Leader of defense:
Professor Lars Småbrekke, Institutt for farmasi, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.