Catrine Johansson

Catrine Johansson

MSc, PhD

Catrine Johansson earned her PhD in Biochemistry at Karolinska Institutet where she investigated  human glutaredoxins, enzymes involved in oxidative stress, thiol redox signalling and iron-sulfur biogenesis.  In January 2005, Catrine joined the Biotechnology group at the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) in Oxford to develop and implement methodologies for high throughput crystallization of human proteins. In 2007, she moved to Prof. Oppermann’s biology group at the SGC to focus on the structural characterisation human thiol-disulfide oxidoreductases. In July 2011, Catrine transitioned to a different project at the SGC aiming to develop potent and selective small molecule inhibitors of proteins involved in epigenetic processes. In this role Catrine had the responsibility for the crystallisation of JmjC lysine demethylases (KDMs), “erasers” that act to remove methyl groups from histone tails as well as some Tudor domain containing proteins, “readers” that recognise methyl marks.

Catrine joined the group of Prof. Oppermann at the Botnar Research Centre in August 2015, where she in a joint position with the Chemistry Department continues the structural and biochemical characterisation of  KDMs. Her research aims to provide detailed aspects of KDM substrate recognition and to identify stimuli that may regulate their activity. Catrine is also involved in several structure-based drug development programs aimed to identify selective inhibitors of KDMs and various reader domains.