While at Stanford, I started a protein engineering project, designing a Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) that could rapidly split into two parts. The design was guided by computer simulations and resulted in a protein with up to 20 times faster dissociation rates. The paper was… Read More »New publication in Nature Communications
Although I’ve only been away for two years, I miss the Bay Area. Our time there was short, but enough to make good friends and memories, meet nice people, and do exciting science. So when I saw that the next ACS conference was in San… Read More »ACS conference in San Francisco
As part of my pedagogic training and preparation for promotions, I’ve attended a course arranged by the pedagogic unit at Uppsala University called Supervising PhD students. The 3-week course was spread out over one semester, finishing earlier this week. In general, I think it’s good… Read More »Supervising PhD students
I contributed to a paper that was recently accepted for publication in JACS. The paper is about electric fields in enzymes, specifically the TEM-1 beta-lactamase, which is an enzyme that breaks down common antibiotics such as penicillin. In the paper, we look at the relationship… Read More »New publication in JACS
At the Faculty of Science and Technology the period from mid-August to end of October is called Period 1. It is the first half of the autumn semester, and for me this year it’s been an exhausting period full of teaching. Today was the last… Read More »Teaching madness
Last spring I was selected for participation in the mentorship program for young researchers at the Faculty of Science and Technology. As far as I understand, this program is aimed at helping us progress through the university system by informing us about the paths and… Read More »TekNat mentorship program
Apart from teaching, I’ve been fortunate to supervise three Master’s degree student projects this spring. The degree projects start in January and go on for one semester. The students have all been working on computational projects related to beta-lactamases. They have either simulated antibiotics or… Read More »Supervising students
I’ve thought about creating a separate website for my research for a long time, but never really got it started. But, now that I actually have a lab of my own it seems that the time has come! So, I created something simple, but I… Read More »New lab website
Nowadays everyone is getting Covid-19. The latest Omicron outbreak seems to have reached every corner of Sweden, including Uppsala, our students, and the staff at our department. But now it seems to have calmed down a bit. A couple of weeks ago I was on… Read More »Covid-19 outbreaks
This week I’ve started teaching a foundation course in chemistry. It’s the first chemistry course for the students at university level, and although it seemed that this course might be taught in-person, we’ve started off teaching it online. Since this is the first time teaching… Read More »Modern teaching?
Mid-December until the first week week of January is the holiday season in Sweden. It starts around the 13th of December when we celebrate Lucia, a festive day centering around the concepts of light, buns and biscuits. More exactly, saffron buns called “lussekatt” and gingerbread… Read More »Winter holidays
One thing I miss about pre-COVID Stanford is all the workshops and seminars for postdocs. Of course, some were offered online during COVID, but it really wasn’t the same thing as the in-person variants. Back in Uppsala one of the first things I did in… Read More »Introductory workshops
Nowadays, it’s rare to see snow before Christmas, but this year, we got snow in mid-November! It was great, and I was able to fulfill a promise to the kids from way back in hot California that we would build a snow man when we… Read More »First snow!
This week I started my new position as a researcher at the Department of Chemistry-BMC at Uppsala University in Sweden. This is the same university where I got my MSc and PhD degrees. Coming back has been nice in a sense, but also somewhat confusing.… Read More »New position at Uppsala University
I’m in my final month as a Stanford postdoc and this month I aim to finish writing up one of my projects. For some people, manuscripts are tedious and time-consuming to write. For me, it’s something I truly enjoy. To me, the time spent writing… Read More »Scientific manuscripts
After a month back home, I’ve decided that I really enjoy being back home. Although I miss my lab mates, I think I might have missed them more had I spent most of my two years in the US actually in the lab. But the… Read More »Switching Stanford for Sweden
It’s 3 AM, Swedish time, and I’m jetlagged. 48 hours ago we were sitting on the plane from San Francisco headed for Lisbon, Portugal. Three days before that, I was finishing up experiments and clearing out my things in the lab so we could focus… Read More »Flying in Covid times
It is the 4th of July, the Independence Day here in the US. It’s likely the last one I will experience and as I’m typing this fireworks are going off. Although we can’t really see any fireworks from our apartment window, we have been able… Read More »4th of July 2021
I came to Stanford in late October 2019 for a two-year appointment as a postdoc. But with four months to go, I’m already preparing to go home. This past year has been really different for a lot of people. Many have had the opportunity to… Read More »Preparing to go home
This week I finally got the second Covid-19 vaccine shot. And my arm is still sore. But in two weeks I should be fully protected against serious illness due to the coronavirus. I got my first vaccine a month ago at Stanford. One of the… Read More »Fully vaccinated!