Bente Frølund

1988: M.Sc. Pharm. (FARMA)
1992: Ph.D. Medicinal Chemistry (FARMA) 

1989-1992: Ph.D. student, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, The Royal Danish School of Pharmacy.

1992-1993: Visiting scientist at Merz &Co., Frankfurt am Main, Germany,

1993-1996: Research assistant professor, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, The Royal Danish School of Pharmacy.

1997-1999: Research associate professor, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, The Royal Danish School of Pharmacy

1999- : Associate professor, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Supported by research grants from Apotekerfonden af 1991 (2001-2003), Danish medical Research Council (2004-2007, 2007-2008, 2010-2012), The Lundbeck Foundation (2005-2008, 2009-2011, 2011-2013), Alfred Benzon Foundation (2005, 2006), Novo Nordisk Foundation (2007-2008), Åse and Ejnar Danielsens Foundation (2008). 

Research associate professor fellowship, The Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 1997-1999.

Research scholarship, Danish Technical Research Council, 1993-1997.

Chemistry Research scholarship, Danish Technical Research Council, 1989-1992.

Within the field of neuromedicinal chemistry the research is covering design and synthesis of selective ligands for studying ligand-receptor interactions focussing on the GABA_A and nACh receptors. Structural determinants for both binding and functional subtype selectivity are under study.

The research has led to GABA_A ligands covering the range of agonist, partial agonists and high affinity antagonists. Structure-activity studies of the developed ligands has led to important information of the structural determinants for activation and deactivation of this group of receptors.

Highly selective nAchR agonists have been developed and are now the issue for optimisation for subtype selectivity within the group of nAChR.

The researh includes involvement in projects covering GHB ligands and GABA uptake inhibitors.

The research program is part of the focus area "Structure-Based Drug Research" at DFU and consists of integrated projects performed in close collaboration with collegues specilalised in molecular modeling and molecular pharmacology.

68 publications (original articles, reviews in international scientific journals and books)

The most recent publications:

Yue, L., Xie, A., Bruzik, K.S., Frølund, B., Qian, H., Pepperberg, D.R., Potentiating action of propofol at GABA_A receptors of retinal bipolar cells, Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2011, 52, 2497–2509.

Sander, T, Frølund, B., Bruun, A.T., Ivanov, I., McCammon, J.A., Balle, T., new insights into the GABA_A receptor structure and orthosteric ligand binding: Receptor modelling guided by experimental data, Proteins, 2011, 79, 1458–1477.

Jørgensen, C, Frølund, B., Kehler, J., Jensen A.A. Discorvery of benzamide analogues as a novel class of 5-HT3 receptor agonists. ChemMedChem, 2011, 6, 725–736.

Wellendorph, P., Høg, S., Sabbatini, P., Pedersen, M.F.H., Martiney, L., Knudsen, G.M., Frølund, B., Clausen, R.P., Bräunder-Osborne, H. Novel radioiodinated GHB analogues for radiolabeling and photolinking of high-affinity GHB binding sites, J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 2010, 335, 458-464.

Sabbatini, P., Wellendorph, P., Høg, S., Pedersen, M.F.H., Bräuner-Osborne, H., Martiney, L., Frølund, B., Clausen, R.P. Design, Synthesis and in vitro pharmacology of new radiolabelled GHB analogues including photolabile analogues with irreversible binding to the high-affinity GHB binding site. J. Med. Chem., 2010, 53, 6506-6510.

Møller, H.A., Sander, T., Kristensen, J.L., Nielsen, B., Krall, J., Bergmann, M.L., Christiansen, B., Balle, T., Jensen, A.A., Frølund, B. Novel 4-(Piperidin-4-yl)-1-hydroxypyrazoles as gamma-Aminobutyric Acid-A Receptor Ligands: Synthesis, Pharmacology, and Structure-activity Relationships, J. Med. Chem., 2010, 53, 3417–3421.

Hansen, C.P., Jensen, A.J., Balle, T., Bitsch-Jensen, K., Hassan, M.H., Liljefors, T. Frølund, B. Carbamoylcholine Analogs as Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Agonists – Structural Modifications of 3-(Dimethylamino)butyl dimethylcarbamate (DMABC), Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett., 2009, 19, 87–91.

Hansen, C.P., Jensen, A.J., Christensen, J.K., Balle, T., Liljefors, T., Frølund, B. Novel Acetylcholine and Carbamoylcholine Analogs: Development of a Functionally Selective α4β2 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Agonist. J.Med.Chem., 2008, 51, 7380–7395.

Smith, M.D., Saunders, G.W., Clausen, R.P., Frølund, B., Krogsgaard-Larsen, P., Larsson, O.M., Schousboe, A., Wilcox, K.S., White, H.S. Inhibition of the betaine-GABA transporter (mGAT2/BGT-1) modulates spontaneous electrographic bursting in the medial entorhinal
cortex (mEC). ).  Epilepsy Res., 2008, 79, 6–13.

Larsen, M, Larsen, B.B., Frølund, B., Nielsen, C.U. Transport of amino acids and GABA analogues via the human proton-coupled amino acid transporter, hPAT1: Characterization of conditions for affinity and transport experiments in Caco-2 cells. Eur. J. Pharma. Sci., 2008, 35, 86–95.

Madsen, C; Jensen, A.J.; Liljefors, T.; Kristiansen, U.; Nielsen, B.; Hansen, C.P.; Larsen, M.; Ebert, B.;  Bang-Andersen, B.;  Krogsgaard-Larsen, P.; Frølund, B. 5-Substituted Imidazole-4-acetic acid analogues: Synthesis, Modeling and Pharmacological Characterization of a Series of Novel gamma-aminobutyric acidC Receptor Agonists. J.Med.Chem., 2007, 15, 4147–4161.

Faust, R.; Garratt, P.J.; Perez, M.A.T.; Piccio, V.J.; Madsen, C.; Stenstrøm, A.; Frølund, B.; Davidson, K.; The, M.T.; Sugden, D. /-substituted-melatonin and 7- substituted-1-methylmelatonin nalogues: Effect of substituents on potency nd binding affinity. Bioorg. Med. Chem., 2007, 15, 4543–4551.

Vestergaard, H.T., Cannillo, C., Frølund, B., Kristiansen, U. Differences in kinetics of structurally related competitive GABAA receptor antagonists. Neuropharmacol. 2007, 52, 873–882..

Frølund, B., Jensen, L., í Storustovu, S., Stensbøl, T.B., Ebert, B., Kehler, J., Krogsgaard-Larsen, P., Liljefors, T. 4-Aryl-5-(4-Piperidyl)-3-Isoxazolol GABAA Antagonists: Synthesis, Pharmacology and Structure-Activity Relationships. J.Med.Chem., 2007,  50, 1988–1992.