Christofer Björkelid

Christofer Björkelid is an Industrial Liaison Scientist responsible for supporting industrial clients with macromolecular crystallography and structural biology projects. He has a background in biochemistry and structural biology, having worked with drug development in both the academic and industrial sectors.

Christofer completed his PhD at Uppsala University with a structure-based drug design project aimed at finding new antibiotics against Tuberculosis and Malaria. He later joined Nanyang Technological University in Singapore as a postdoctoral fellow, working with fragment-based techniques in order to develop new cancer drugs.

Before joining the Industrial Liaison group at Diamond he worked at a pharmaceutical company in Sweden, developing biochemical assays and automating these for high-throughput process development using robotics.

Reddy BK, Landge S, Ravishankar S, Patil V, Shinde V, Tantry S, Kale M, Raichurkar A, Menasinakai S, Mudugal NV, Ambady A, Ghosh A, Tunduguru R, Kaur P, Singh R, Kumar N, Bharath S, Sundaram A, Bhat J, Sambandamurthy VK, Björkelid C, Jones TA, Das K, Bandodkar B, Malolanarasimhan K, Mukherjee K and Ramachandran V. Assessment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis pantothenate kinase vulnerability through target knockdown and mechanistically diverse inhibitors. (2014) Antimicrob Agents Chemother, 58, 3312-3326.

Björkelid C, Bergfors T, Raichurkar AK, Mukherjee K, Malolanarasimhan K, Bandodkar B and Jones TA. Structural and biochemical characterization of compounds inhibiting Mycobacterium tuberculosis pantothenate kinase. (2013) J Biol Chem, 288, 18260-18270.

Jansson AM*, Wieckowska A*, Björkelid C*, Yahiaoui S, Sooriyaarachchi S, Lindh M, Bergfors T, Dharavath S, Desroses M, Suresh S, Andaloussi M, Nikhil R, Sreevalli S, Srinivasa BR, Larhed M, Jones TA, Karlén A and Mowbray SL. DXR inhibition by potent mono- and disubstituted fosmidomycin analogues. (2013) J Med Chem, 56, 6190-6199.

Björkelid C, Bergfors T, Unge T, Mowbray SL and Jones TA. Structural studies on Mycobacterium tuberculosis DXR in complex with the antibiotic FR-900098. (2012) Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr, 68, 134-143.

Andaloussi M, Lindh M, Björkelid C, Suresh S, Wieckowska A, Iyer H, Karlén A and Larhed M. Substitution of the phosphonic acid and hydroxamic acid functionalities of the DXR inhibitor FR900098: an attempt to improve the activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. (2011) Bioorg Med Chem Lett, 21, 5403-5407.

Nordqvist A, Björkelid C, Andaloussi M, Jansson AM, Mowbray SL, Karlén A and Larhed M. Synthesis of functionalized cinnamaldehyde derivatives by an oxidative Heck reaction and their use as starting materials for preparation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5phosphate reductoisomerase inhibitors. (2011) J Org Chem, 76, 8986-8998.

Björkelid C, Bergfors T, Henriksson LM, Stern AL, Unge T, Mowbray SL and Jones TA. Structural and functional studies of mycobacterial IspD enzymes. (2011) Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr, 67, 403-414.

Andaloussi M, Henriksson LM, Wieckowska A, Lindh M, Björkelid C, Larsson AM, Suresh S, Iyer H, Srinivasa BR, Bergfors T, Unge T, Mowbray SL, Larhed M, Jones TA and Karlén A. Design, synthesis, and X-ray crystallographic studies of alpha-aryl substituted fosmidomycin analogues as inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate reductoisomerase. (2011) J Med Chem, 54, 4964-4976.

Henriksson LM, Björkelid C, Mowbray SL and Unge T. The 1.9 A resolution structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate reductoisomerase, a potential drug target. (2006) Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr, 62, 807-813.

Suarez Covarrubias A, Larsson AM, Högbom M, Lindberg J, Bergfors T, Björkelid C, Mowbray SL, Unge T and Jones TA. Structure and function of carbonic anhydrases from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. (2005) J Biol Chem, 280, 18782-18789.

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