Søren Brøgger Christensen

Associate professor

Department of Medicinal Chemistry
Royal Danish School of Pharmacy
Universitetsparken 2
DK-2100 Copenhagen
Denmark
Phone: (+45) 35 30 62 53
Fax: (+45) 35 30 60 41
E-mail: sbc@dfuni.dk

Location: Department of Medicinal Chemistry Building 30, Jagtvej 162, room 040

Born: August 19th 1947.
Education: M.Pharm. (cand. pharm.): 1971
Ph.D. (medicinal chemistry): 1975
Associate professor at Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Royal Danish School of Pharmacy: 1976 - present.
Postdoctoral fellowship at Department of Chemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, 1976
Fellowship at the Department of Pharmacology, University College, London, 1984
Fellowship at the National Cancer Centre, Tokyo: May 1986
Fellowship at the German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg: Nov. 1990
Officially appointed censor at the Danish Technical University, Denmark 1991 - present

Bioactive natural products. Since 1975 the research has been focused on natural products chemistry with emphasis on biologically active natural products. In 1978 the first paper on the calcium-ATPase pump inhibitor thapsigargin, which has become a standard tool for studies on secretion and calcium homeostasis was published. This work has been followed with isolation, structure elucidation and biological evaluation of thapsigargin and naturally occurring analogues of thapsigargin and in systematic semisynthetic changes of thapsigargin in order to elucidate the structure activity relationships. In 1988 the generally accepted structure of thapsigargin was published. Presently analogues of thapsigargin are prepared in order to develop drugs for treatment of prostate cancer. These studies have been extended studies to enclose natural products usable for treatment of tropical diseases. A number of molluscicidal coumarins and saponins have been isolated and structure elucidated. Some antiparasitic chalcones have been isolated. Analogues are prepared and medicinal chemical studies are undertaken to optimise the antiparasitic activities. Presently a number of plants used in traditional medicine are investigated for antiparasitic principles, which are isolated and structure elucidated. The obtained compounds will be evaluated for their potential use as chemotherapeutics.

Supervisor for 3 ph.d.-students:
Carsten Jakobsen, Tissue targeted analogues of thapsigargin for treatment of prostate cancer.
George Duker-Eshun, Antimalarial compounds from Ghanaian Plants.
Heidi Dorthe Jeensen, Antiadhesion therapy.

98 Publications (original and review articles in international scientific journals and books).
3 Patents.

Books:
Krogsgaard-Larsen, P., Christensen, S.B., Kofod, H. (Eds).
Natural Products and Drug Development.
Munksgaard, Copenhagen 1984.

Krogsgaard-Larsen, P., Christensen, S.B., Kofod, H. (Eds).
New Leads and Targets in Drug Research.
Munksgaard, Copenhagen 1992.

10 Most recent publication:
Nielsen, S.F., Kharazmi, A., Christensen, S.B.
Modifications of the alfa,beta-Double Bond in Chalcones only Marginally Affect the Antiprotozoal Activities.
Bioorg. Med. Chem. 6 (1998) 937-945.

Khalid, S.A., Friedrichsen, G.M., Kharazmi, A., Theander, T.G., Olsen, C.E., Christensen, S.B.
Limonoids from Khaya senegalensis.
Phytochemistry 49 (1998) 1769 - 1772.

Wind, O., Christensen, S.B., Mølgaard, P.
Colouring Agents in Yellow and White Flowered Papaver radicatum in North Greenland.
Biochem. Syst. Ecol. 26 (1998) 771-779.

Nielsen, S.F., Christensen, S.B., Cruciani, G., Kharazmi, A., Liljefors, T.
Antileishmanial Chalcones. Statistical Design, Synthesis and 3D-QSAR Analysis.
J. Med. Chem. 41 (1998) 4819 - 4822.

Procida, K., Caspersen, C., Kromann, H., Christensen, S.B., Treiman, M.
ACTA, a Fluorescent Analogue of Thapsigargin, Is a Potent Inhibitor and a Conformational Probe of Skeletal Muscle Ca2+-ATPase.
FEBS Lett. 439 (1998) 127 - 132.

Sittie, A. A., Lemmich, E., Olsen, C. E., Hviid, L., Kharazmi, A., Nkrumah, F. K., Christensen, S. B.
Structure-Activity Studies: In vitro Antileishmanial and Antimalarial Activities of Anthraquinone from Morinda lucida.
Planta Med. 65 (1999) 259 - 261.

Christensen, S.B., Andersen, A., Kromann, H., Treiman, M., Tombal, B., Denmeade, S., Isaacs, J.T.
Thapsigargin Analogues for Targeting Programmed Death of Androgen-Independent Prostate Cancer Cells.
Bioorg. Med. Chem. 7 (1999) 1273 - 1280.

Zhai, L., Chen, M., Blom, J., Theander, T. G., Christensen, S. B., Kharazmi, A.
The Antileishmanial Activity of Novel Oxygenated Chalcones and Their Mechanism of Action. J. Antimicr.
Chemother. 43 (1999) 793 - 803.

Rasmussen, H.B., Christensen, S.B., Kvist, L.P., Kharazmi, A.
A Simple and Efficient Separation of the Curcumins - The Antiprotozoal Constituents of Curcuma longa.
Planta Medica 66 (2000) 396 - 398.

Christensen, S.B., Kharazmi, A.
Antimalarial Natural Products. In Bioactive Natural Products, Isolation, Structure Elucidation, and Biological Activity.
Tringali, C (ed.) Taylor and Francis, London, 2001.

Rasmussen, H.B., Christensen, S.B., Kvist, L.P., Kharazmi, A., Huansi, A.G.
Absolute Configuration and Antiprotozoal Activity of Minquartynoic Acid.
J. Nat. Prod. 63 (2000) 1295 - 1296.