Anna Herland

KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Keywords
Key publications

Enrico, A., Voulgaris, D., Östmans, R., Sundaravadivel, N., Moutaux, L., Cordier, A., Niklaus, F., Herland, A., & Stemme, G. (2022). 3D Microvascularized Tissue Models by Laser‐Based Cavitation Molding of Collagen. Advanced Materials, 34(11), 2109823. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202109823

Winkler, T. E., & Herland, A. (2021). Sorption of Neuropsychopharmaca in Microfluidic Materials for In Vitro Studies. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 13(38), 45161–45174. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.1c07639

 

Matthiesen, I., Voulgaris, D., Nikolakopoulou, P., Winkler, T. E., & Herland, A. (2021).
Continuous Monitoring Reveals Protective Effects of N‐Acetylcysteine Amide on an Isogenic Microphysiological Model of the Neurovascular Unit.
Small, 17(32), 2101785. https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202101785

Lundin, A., Ricchiuto, P., Clausen, M., Hicks, R., Falk, A., & Herland, A. (2020).
HiPS‐Derived Astroglia Model Shows Temporal Transcriptomic Profile Related to Human Neural Development and Glia Competence Acquisition of a Maturing Astrocytic Identity.
Advanced Biosystems, 4(5), 1900226. https://doi.org/10.1002/adbi.201900226

Maoz, B. M., Herland, A., FitzGerald, E. A., Grevesse, T., Vidoudez, C., Pacheco, A. R., Sheehy, S. P., Park, T.-E., Dauth, S., Mannix, R., Budnik, N., Shores, K., Cho, A., Nawroth, J. C., Segrè, D., Budnik, B., Ingber, D. E., & Parker, K. K. (2018).
A linked organ-on-chip model of the human neurovascular unit reveals the metabolic coupling of endothelial and neuronal cells.
Nature Biotechnology, 36(9), 865–874. https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.4226

Zeglio, E., Rutz, A., Winkler, T., Malliaras, G., Herland, A., (2019)
Conjugated Polymers for Assessing and Controlling Biological Functions.
Advanced Materials, 31, 1806712.

Research Intrests

In vitro models

Disorders of the central nervous system (CNS), such as brain tumors or neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases, are skyrocketing. Nevertheless, drug development for CNS disorders is marked by high failure rates and proved cumbersome to the point that many pharmaceutical companies stepped back from CNS research.

To address the urgent need for reliable, human-relevant in vitro models, our research focuses on recreating microphysiological systems of human tissues, often referred to as Organ-on-Chip (OoC) systems. Using our profound expertise in stem cell engineering, particularly human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), we can build patient-specific, and physiologically highly relevant in vitro replicates of in vivo biological functions. We further develop organic electronics or bioelectronics stimuli and readouts for real-time functional assessment of the on-chip tissues. Aiming for a deeper understanding of neuronal interactions with other neural and neurovascular cells, specifically in terms of metabolic function and neuronal activity, we have exploited both the hiPSC and OoC technology for creating advanced models of the human neurovascular unit suitable for drug biodistribution and cell-cell interaction studies.

While our group’s focus is on the development of hiPSC-derived CNS models, we have recently also contributed to the establishment of gastrointestinal and cardiac microfluidic models.

Organic bioelectronics

The organic bioelectronics Team in Herland Lab focuses on organic mixed ionic/electronic conductors for sensing and recording of electrophysiological signals. Starting from the chemistry of the core components, our research integrates aspects of device engineering with the aim to fabricate fully functional and biodegradable electronic devices. The core technology is centered on the organic electrochemical transistor: a three-terminal device that uses the mixed conductivity of organic conductors to transduce ionic signals into electronic ones and vice versa. Our work is very applied, and the devices are designed according to the final application, such as biosensing or improving the recording capability of in vitro models – e.g., stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes and neuronal systems.

Group Members

Dr. Erica Zeglio

Dr. Polyxeni Nikolakopoulou, Postdoc

Dr. Hanie Kavand, Postdoc

Dr. Rohollah Nasiri, Postdoc

Dr. Julia Rogal, Postdoc

Dimitrios Voulgaris, Ph.D. Student

Saumey Jain, Ph.D. Student

Sebastian Buchmann, Ph.D. Student

Open positions

We are always looking for talented students who are passionate about science and curious to delve into in vitro modeling of the human CNS and organic bioelectronics.

Last updated: 2022-11-30

Content Responsible: David Gotthold(david.gotthold@scilifelab.se)