Kjell Morten Vårum
| Epost | kjell.morten.vaarum@biotech.ntnu.no |
| Fasttelefon | 73593324 |
| Mobiltelefon | 93022165 |
| Kontoradresse | Kjemi IV*4.130, Sem Sælands vei 6 |
| Stilling | Professor |
| Enhet | Institutt for bioteknologi |
Professor Kjell Morten Vårum
Kjell Morten Vårum is a professor of marine biochemistry at the Department of Biotechnology, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), in Trondheim.
Background
Working in the 1980's on carbohydrates from marine planctonic algae, I have published articles on the chemical composition on these marine primary producers, including later also on a benthic red algae. My PhD-thesis was on the physical-chemical properties of a soluble fiber component (a mixed-linkage glucan) from oat. However, the most extensive research area has been related to the sources, isolation and structure-function relationships of chitin and chitosans, mainly from marine sources such as the shells of crustaceans such as shrimps and crabs where chitin is a structural polysaccharide. Chitin are among the most abundant biopolymers in Nature, and chitosans are a family of water-soluble and positively charged polysaccharides that can be used for widely varying applications, such as water purification, as a substrate for advanced studies of chitin/chitosan modifying enzymes, and for the delivery of drugs and genes. Author/coauthor of review articles on chitin/chitosans and invited lecturer at international chitin/chitosan and carbohydrate conferences.
Membership
Formerly (2003-2009) president of the European Chitin Society (EUCHIS; see http://www.euchis.org), member of editorial board of the journal Biomacromolecules published by the American Chemical Society.
Publications
Updated information on the list of publications from the Department of Biotechnology, NTNU.
Selected recent articles:
A. Sørbotten, S.J. Horn, V.G.H. Eijsink & K.M. Vårum. Degradation of chitosans with Chitinase B from Serratia marcescens; production of chito-oligosaccharides and insight into enzyme processivity. FEBS Journal. 2005, 272, 538–549.
S.P. Strand, S. Danielsen, B.E. Christensen & K. M. Vårum. Influence of chitosan structure on the formation and stability of DNA-chitosan polyelectrolyte complexes. Biomacromolecules, 2005, 6, 3357-3366.
Sikorski, P., A. Sørbotten, S.J. Horn, V.G.H. Eijsink & K.M. Vårum. Serratia marcescens chitinases with tunnel-shaped substrate-binding grooves show endo activity and different degrees of processivity during enzymatic hydrolysis of chitosan. Biochemistry, 2006, 45 (31), 9566-9574.
A. Einbu & K.M. Vårum. Depolymerization and de-N-acetylation of chitin oligomers oligomers in hydrochloric acid. Biomacromolecules, 2007, 8, 309-314.
A. Einbu, H. Grasdalen & K.M. Vårum. Kinetics of hydrolysis of chitin/chitosan oligomers in concentrated hydrochloric acid. Carbohydrate Research, 2007, 342, 1055-1062.
R.H. Rødde, A. Einbu & K.M. Vårum. A Seasonal Study of the Chemical Composition and Chitin Quality of Shrimp Shells obtained from Northern Shrimp (Pandalus borealis). Carbohydrate Polymers, 2008, 71, 388-393.
A. Einbu & K.M. Vårum. Characterization of Chitin and Its Hydrolysis to GlcNAc and GlcN. Biomacromolecules, 2008, 9, 1870-1875.
E.B. Heggset, A.I. Dybvig, I.A. Hoell, A.L. Norberg, M. Sørlie, VGH Eijsink & K.M. Vårum. Degradation of chitosans with a Family 46 Chitinase from Streptomyces coelicolor A3 (2). Biomacromolecules , 2010, 11, 2487-2497.
S.P. Strand, S. Lelu, N.K. Reitan, C. de Lange Davies, P. Artursson and K.M. Vårum (2010) Molecular design of chitosan gene delivery systems with an optimized balance between polyplex stability and polyplex unpacking. Biomaterials, 31, 975-987. J. Malmo, K.M. Vårum & S.P. Strand. Effect of Chitosan Chain Architecture on Gene Delivery: Comparison of Self-Branched and Linear Chitosans. Biomacromolecules (2011) 12, 721-729.
