Anna Falk

Anna Falk

Principal Researcher | Docent
Telephone: +46852482897
Visiting address: Solnavägen 9 - kvarter D7, 17165 Solna
Postal address: C4 Neurovetenskap, C4 Forskning Falk, 171 77 Stockholm
Part of:

About me

  • iPS cell models of human brain development in health and disease.
    I started the Falk lab in 2012 and have since educated four PhD students to
    finalize their PhD degrees with me as their main supervisor. The Falk lab has
    also had numerous amounts of postdocs and bachelor and master students
    through the years.
    I did my PhD at Karolinska Institutet with Professor Jonas Frisén and
    continued with a postdoc in the lab of Professor Austin Smith at the
    University of Cambridge, UK.
    A couple of years ago I did a sabbatical in the lab of Professor Rusty Gage
    at the Salk Institute in San Diego, US.
    I really love my job and I do research since it is rewarding to go from
    ideas, hypothesis, project plan, experimental design, experiments, analysis,
    validating, summarizing, writing a story about novel findings to
    understanding disorders and with the potential to improve human health.
    Selected to the career development programme for young researcher as one of
    ten young research leaders in Sweden across all sciences. This grant (6 MSEK
    from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research SSF) provides support for
    successful young scientists to build up their own independent careers.
    Research grant from SciLifeLab/AZ to model human neurological disorders and
    to use the national core facilities at SciLifeLab (20 MSEK)
    I have a Master of Science in Molecular Biology from Umeå University
    PhD in Molecular Biology from Karolinska Institutet about neural stem cells
    Docent (Associate Professor) in Stem cell Biology

Research

  • The Falk lab is deriving cellular models of neural stem cells, neurons and
    glia from iPS cells to study proliferation, differentiation, migration, fate
    choosing mechanisms using assays of transcriptome of bulk or single cells.
    Our studies concentrate mostly on early neurogenesis and modeling of
    neurodevelopment and neuropsychiatric disorders. We have revealed
    neurite outgrowth phenotypes in iPS cell models of Lissencephaly and other
    neurodevelopment disorders. We have on the single cells level investigated
    how iPS cell derived neural stem cells are choosing fate between neurons and
    glia and how that mechanisms is skewed in iPS cells from individuals
    diagnosed with autism and schizophrenia.
    The Falk lab is also driving translational projects investigating the
    regenerative potential of iPS cell derived neural cells in preclinical models
    with the aim to create ATMPs to take iPS derived cell to clinic. We have
    derived one of few clinical compliant GMP iPS cell lines that we have banked
    in a master bank and we are now investigating the route forward to clinic.
    The iPS Core facility at Karolinska Institutet is providing services in the
    area of fibroblast establishment, reprogramming, iPS cell culture, neural
    induction, neural stem cells, neurons, astrocytes, neural crest and soon also
    whole brain organoids. The services are custom-tailored spanning from
    providing vials of frozen cells, to hand-on training, to customers monthly
    subscribing for mature human neurons. The iPS Core is the Swedish "Cell
    vending machine". Get your cell model of interest arrayed in the format you
    need. https://ipscore.se [1]
    *A few recent publications*
    Humanized Stem Cell Models of Pediatric Medulloblastoma Reveal an Oct4/mTOR
    Axis that Promotes Malignancy. [2]
    Čančer M, Hutter S, Holmberg KO, Rosén G, Sundström A, Tailor J,
    Bergström T, Garancher A, Essand M, Wechsler-Reya RJ, Falk A, Weishaupt H,
    Swartling FJ
    /Cell Stem Cell 2019 Dec
  • 25(6):855-870.e11/
    Single cell analysis of autism patient with bi-allelic NRXN1-alpha deletion
    reveals skewed fate choice in neural progenitors and impaired neuronal
    functionality. [3]
    Lam M, Moslem M, Bryois J, Pronk RJ, Uhlin E, Ellström ID, Laan L, Olive J,
    Morse R, Rönnholm H, Louhivuori L, Korol SV, Dahl N, Uhlén P, Anderlid BM,
    Kele M, Sullivan PF, Falk A
    /Exp Cell Res 2019 10
  • 383(1):111469/
    Human iPS-Derived Astroglia from a Stable Neural Precursor State Show
    Improved Functionality Compared with Conventional Astrocytic Models. [4]
    Lundin A, Delsing L, Clausen M, Ricchiuto P, Sanchez J, Sabirsh A, Ding M,
    Synnergren J, Zetterberg H, Brolén G, Hicks R, Herland A, Falk A
    /Stem Cell Reports 2018 03
  • 10(3):1030-1045/
    An in vitro model of lissencephaly: expanding the role of DCX during
    neurogenesis. [5]
    Shahsavani M, Pronk RJ, Falk R, Lam M, Moslem M, Linker SB, Salma J, Day K,
    Schuster J, Anderlid BM, Dahl N, Gage FH, Falk A
    /Mol Psychiatry 2018 07
  • 23(7):1674-1684/
    Derivation of human iPS cell lines from monozygotic twins in defined and xeno
    free conditions. [6]
    Uhlin E, Rönnholm H, Day K, Kele M, Tammimies K, Bölte S, Falk A
    /Stem Cell Res 2017 01
  • 18():22-25/
    [1] https://ipscore.se
    [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31786016
    [3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31302032
    [4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29456185
    [5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28924182
    [6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28395796

Teaching

  • I have been the organizer of a master and PhD courses about cellular
    reprogramming in addition to hand-on course and train for culturing stem
    cells.
    I am continuously lecturing at Karolinska Institutet and other Universities
    and supervising bachelor, master and PhD students.

Articles

All other publications

Employments

  • Principal Researcher, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, 2022-

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2014
  • Doctor Of Philosophy, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institutet, 2006

Supervisor

  • Jakob Schuy, Studies of structural chromosome rearrangments to identify genes involved in congenital brain disorders

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