Products

During my first years in primary school I came into contact with chemistry, and ever since it has been obvious that this would be my lifetime occupation. Aged eleven, I equipped a chemistry laboratory at the guesthouse in our garden, and my laboratory was soon filled with assorted chemicals much to my parents' disapproval. It became clear that the access to hazardous chemicals was not going to be easy. I applied for permission to handle more hazardous chemicals from the county administration (sv. länsstyrelsen), but my application was turned down due to my age. Convinced that I had much more knowledge and skills in this matter than many of the craftsmen and artists who received permission, I went to court against the county administration but to my dismay, the case was dismissed without court proceedings.

The lack of funding was also a great concern to me. Even though most of my income was spent on laboratory equipment, I could not afford the more expensive equipment I was dreaming about. My contacts with companies and authorities connected to the chemistry area provided me with the insight that many laboratories had a large stock of obsolete laboratory equipment. I therefore started to correspond with companies, hospitals and authorities that were running laboratories, in order to try and persuade them to sell me obsolete equipment. Soon, my efforts were paying off and I had a considerable stock of hardware like a high-resolution weight, pH-meter, electrophoresis equipment etc.

In the eighth grade, I started to study chemistry. Initially enthusiastic, I soon lost the appetite and the teacher allowed me to sit in an adjacent room and study chemistry from my own books. There is a paragraph in the school legislation that can release students from a school-subject, after a test if they are clearly overqualified. This opening is mostly used to release native English speaking students from the English classes. My first attempts to get permission to be released from chemistry education was turned down since this was a laborativ subject and my laborativ experiences could not easily be verified. After some time of stubborn persuasion though, the headmaster finally gave me permission to be released from the schools routine chemistry education.

Since some of the chemistry work was highly inconvenient to perform in my home-laboratory, I looked for other opportunities to carry out experiments. Stefan Nordlund, who was an associate professor in biochemistry at the University of Stockholm at that time, kindly provided me with working facilities in his laboratory. Besides the excellent working facilities, I was also introduced to the academic research environment.

I started high school and again faced the same difficulties as I had in high school to be released from the normal chemistry lessons. Again, through stubbornness and persuasion, I was finally released from the chemistry teaching. I have not studied chemistry at either basic school or high school. During my time in high-school, I was elected chairman of the local branch of the scientific organization Unga Forskare (Eng. Young scientists). The organization is engaged in all manner of scientific projects and education for youngsters. When I was installed as chairman, most of the activity concerned more casual activities such as the production and use of home made pyrotechnic products and other kind of mischief. During my time as a chairman, I upgraded the laboratory and equiped it with better hardware, through the help of the local municipality administration, and sponsoring deals with some companies.

I developed contact with a local enterprise called Stockholms Analytiska Laboratory AB (SALAB). The company was originally engaged in the business of analysis and product development on consultant basis, and started to produce and market soaps and body lotions for hospitals and retail shops , hospitals and food industry such as gels for ultrasonic therapy and electrocardiography and essences for beverages. I began working at SALAB both in the production and development area.

My education has primarily been focused on three basic areas:
     Synthetic Organic Chemistry
     Drug Design
     Business related questions

Synthetic Organic Chemistry
I have the theoretical knowledge and practical skills that yot normally expect from a synthetic organic chemist. My theoretical foundation in organic chemistry is based on extensive studies in the following books:

     Principles of Organic Synthesis, 3:rd edition, Norman, R., Coxon, J.
     Advanced Organic Chemsitry I-II, 3:rd edition, F. Carey, R. Sundberg.
     Hetrocyclic Chemistry, 4:th edition, J. Joule, K. Mills.
     Organometallics, 2:nd Edition, Elschenbroich, C., Salzer, A.
     Transition metals in the synthesis of complex organic molecules, 2:nd edition, L. Hegedus.
     Spectroscopic Methods in Organic Chemistry, Hesse, M., Meier, H., Zeeh, B.
     Modern NMR Spectroscopy, 2:nd edition, Sanders, J., Hunter, B.

I have extensive experience in using the following techniques:

Drug Design
As an organic chemistry student, you are supposed to memorize a large amount of well-recognized synthetic reactions. I believe, only a very minute amount of these reactions are used in everyday preparative organic chemistry. However, by memorizing these reactions, I think that my understanding of other reactions and the respective mechanisms behind them has increased. My chemical intuition has improved. In the same way, I have assumed that by memorizing a large amount of drugs, compounds failing to become drugs, compounds used as in vitro pharmaceutical tools, natural products, pesticides and environmental toxins to their structure, as well as their biopharmaceutical fate and possible toxicological impact (exemplified by allopurinol, blue box below), I should be able to develop a similar 'gut feeling' for what fate a proposed structure will have in vivo. After accomplishment of this goal, I believe that this somewhat odd strategy has been prosperous. The approach has also been complemented by extensively studying of reviews in diverse areas concerning in vitro pharmacology, biopharmacy, toxicology and pharmaceutics.