Biography

Dr Jóhannes Reynisson FRSC began his academic career at the University of Iceland where he read chemistry (BSc/MSc). His PhD was obtained from the University of Copenhagen in 2000, the research work was carried out at the Risø national laboratory (Denmark) and Georgia Institute of Technology (GA, USA). He spent two and a half years in Germany as a post-doctoral fellow at the Max-Planck-Institut für Strahlenchemie, Mülheim and the University of Leipzig. He worked for five years at the Institute of Cancer Research in London as a molecular modeller developing anticancer drug candidates followed by a lectureship at the Nottingham Trent University. For ten years, he was a senior lecturer in computational chemistry and molecular modelling at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Scholar Link

On the editorial board for Molecules medicinal chemistry section.

Guest editor of the special issues:

Hit Generation and Verification for Novel Lead compounds
Advances in Anticancer Drug Discovery

Research and scholarship

Dr Reynisson’s research interests lie within the field of drug discovery, in particular computer aided drug design (CADD) with emphasis on molecular modelling, virtual high throughput screening and density functional theory (DFT). His main interests now are:

i)                   Development of Tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase I (TDP1) inhibitors as anticancer agents

ii)                  Hit to lead development of autophagy inhibitors

iii)                 The use of natural products in conjunction with virtual high throughput screening to identify quality lead compounds

iv)                 Development of pharmacokinetic models based on density functional theory molecular descriptors

v)                  Investigations into the nature of known drug space (KDS) and its application as a navigational tool in chemical space

Teaching

I teach elements of the undergraduate curriculum for the Keele University MPharm and BSc Pharmaceutical Science, Technology and Business programmes at the School of Pharmacy and Bioengineering.