Elena Gutierrez Farewik

Lanie is a Professor of Biomechanics at KTH Engineering Mechanics and director of the Promobilia MoveAbility Lab.  She leads the research group at KTH MoveAbility. She is president of the Swedish Society of Biomechanics and is on the board of the Swedish National Committee for Mechanics.

She earned her BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell Universitiy in 1995, her MSc in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1997, and her PhD in Orthopedics from Karolinska Institutet in 2003.

She is responsible for SG2804 Biomechanics of Human Movement for 2nd level students and SG3084 Biomechanics of Human Movement for 3rd level students. She has previously taught and been responsible for several undergraduate courses in Mechanics.

She sits next to the Promobilia MoveAbility Lab, Osquars Backe 18, 4th floor, room 2411

Research Interests

Her research interests are in movement simulation, strategies, consequences, and assistance in children and adults with motion disorders.

Persons with physical disabilities are the largest minority group in the world. Despite this, we as a society have relatively little ability to predict the long-term spiraling effects of their primary disability, and treatment is thus often short-sighted in nature.  Through multidisciplinary collaboration and multiscale modelling and experimental approaches, we aim to expand fundamental knowledge of the tissue and systemic behavior of persons with disability. We study changes in muscle and bone structure and function due to abnormal neurological signaling and mechanical loading. We also study the movement strategies employed by the central nervous system, as they are central to effective treatment design and successful outcome. We investigate the causal relationship between primary pathology, secondary consequences, and compensation strategies, in order to facilitate better treatment design. Finally, we conceptually design and develop assistance-as-needed active and passive robotic exoskeletons that empower each individual to locomote to his/her best ability.

She is generously sponsored by Stiftelsen Promobila (2024-28, 38 Mkr: Technology to decode, predict and enhance human movement) (2019-23, 11.5 Mkr: Multiscale and multimodal biomechanical research for persons with motion disorders, by the Swedish Research Council (2025-2029, 4.57 Mkr, Movement performance: a constructed multifactorial solution in persons with disability), and Digital Futures Flagship Project (9 Mkr: Redefining Mobility for Aging Adults, with co-PIs M. Balaam (KTH EECS) and Georgios Andrikopoulos (KTH ITM)). She also received a Consolidating Grant from the Swedish Research Council (BADASS: BiomechAnics in motion Disorders and ASSistance) for the years 2019-24 (12 Mkr) and several projects from Digital Futures (2022-5, 2 Mkr: Advancing real-time exoskeleton control for human-in-the-loop optimization and 1.5 Mkr, 2021-2023 Deep Camera-Based Movement Analysis for Remote Rehab & Physical Therapy)

Publications

See her Google Scholar profile

Post Docs

Current

• Israel Luis (2024 - present)
• Jennifer Maier (2025 - present)
• Liangliang Xiang (2025 - present)

Previous

• Yixing Liu (2021-2024)
• Longbin Zhang (2021-2023)
• Fredrik Olsson (2021-2022)
• Marta Peña Fernández (2019-2020)
• Niklas Löfgren (2019-2020)

PhD Students

• Minh Truong (2021 - present)
• Ibrahim Hasan (2022 - present)
• Yuanyang Zhang (2023 - present)
• Linghui Xu (2022 - present)
• Guillaume Flinois (2024 - present)
• Floor Janssen (2025 - present)
• Gustaf Sundell (2025 - present)
• Tyler Witzig (2025 - present)

Graduated PhD students as main supervisor

• Xiaochen Zhang (PhD 2025)
• Israel Luis (PhD 2024)
• Yixing Liu (PhD 2018)
• Longbin Zhang (PhD 2018)
• Binbin Su (PhD 2018)
• Priti Yadav (PhD 2017)
• Ruoli Wang (PhD 2012)

Former/Completed Licentiate students

• Rakesh Krishna (KTH EECS)
• Erik Dijkstra (Tech. Lic., KTH, 2016)
• Olesya Klets (Tech. Lic., KTH, 2011)

Students she co-supervises

Currently:

• Mariah Sabioni (KTH 2023 - present)
• Vera Fedosova (KI 2025 - present)
• Zhaoyuan Wan (KTH 2023 - present)
• Ruoyu Huang (KTH 2023 - present)
• Zhihao Duan (KTH 2022 - present)
• Tim Aeppli MD (KI 2020 - present)
• Axel Fredriksen (KI 2022 - present)

Graduated PhD students:

• Zhongzheng Wang (KTH, PhD 2025)
• Asta Kizyte (KTH, PhD 2025)
• Zhengpei Zhang, MD (KI, PhD 2025)
• Paul Sandamas (GIH, PhD 2021)
• Anneli Wall (RPT, PhD, Karolinska Institutet 2020)
• Maria Sjöberg (fd Jönsson) (co-supervisor, PhD 2020)
• Stefan Gantelius (MD, PhD, Karolinska Institutet 2016)
• Cecilia Lidbeck (RPT, PhD, Karolinska Institutet 2016)
• Marie Eriksson (CPO, PhD, Karolinska Institutet 2016)
• Pähr Engström (MD, PhD, Karolinska Institutet 2012)
• Natalia Kosterina (PhD, KTH 2012)
• Robert Petterson (PhD, KTH 2012)
• Kristina Löwing (RPT, PhD, Karolinska Institutet 2010)
• Girts Murans (MD, PhD, Karolinska Institutet 2011)
• Sofia Heintz (Tech. Lic. KTH, 2006)