Jóhannes Reynisson

Covid-19 information and FAQs for applicants, students and staff >

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

Selected Publications

Sharma N, Langley RJ, Eurtivong C, Leung E, Dixon RJ, Paulin EK, Rees SWP, Pilkington LI, Barker D, Reynisson J, Leung IKH. 2021. An optimised MALDI-TOF assay for phosphatidylcholine-specific phospholipase C. Anal Methods. link> doi>
Salomatina OV, Popadyuk II, Zakharenko AL, Zakharova OD, Chepanova AA, Dyrkheeva NS, Komarova NI, Reynisson J, Anarbaev RO, Salakhutdinov NF, Lavrik OI, Volcho KP. 2021. Deoxycholic acid as a molecular scaffold for tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase 1 inhibition: A synthesis, structure-activity relationship and molecular modeling study. Steroids, vol. 165, 108771. link> doi>
Beswick L, Dimitriou E, Ahmadipour S, Zafar A, Rejzek M, Reynisson J, Field RA, Miller GJ. 2020. Inhibition of the GDP-d-Mannose Dehydrogenase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Using Targeted Sugar Nucleotide Probes. ACS Chem Biol, vol. 15(12), 3086-3092. link> doi>
Łomzik M, Hanif M, Budniok A, Błauż A, Makal A, Tchoń DM, Leśniewska B, Tong KKH, Movassaghi S, Söhnel T, Jamieson SMF, Zafar A, Reynisson J, Rychlik B, Hartinger CG, Plażuk D. 2020. Metal-Dependent Cytotoxic and Kinesin Spindle Protein Inhibitory Activity of Ru, Os, Rh, and Ir Half-Sandwich Complexes of Ispinesib-Derived Ligands. Inorg Chem, vol. 59(20), 14879-14890. link> doi> full text>
Gladkova ED, Nechepurenko IV, Bredikhin RA, Chepanova AA, Zakharenko AL, Luzina OA, Ilina ES, Dyrkheeva NS, Mamontova EM, Anarbaev RO, Reynisson J, Volcho KP, Salakhutdinov NF, Lavrik OI. 2020. The First Berberine-Based Inhibitors of Tyrosyl-DNA Phosphodiesterase 1 (Tdp1), an Important DNA Repair Enzyme. Int J Mol Sci, vol. 21(19). link> doi>