Elena Gutierrez Farewik

Lanie is a Professor of Biomechanics at KTH Engineering Mechanics.  She leads the research group at the KTH MoveAbility Lab, and was the Director of the KTH BioMEx Center. She is president of the Swedish Society of Biomechanics and is on the board of the Swedish National Committee for Mechanics.

She received 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 was the Director of 1st and 2nd Cycle Studies at Mechanics between 2013 and 2017. She was acting Deputy Head of the School of Engineering Sciences in 2019 and was Head of the Department of Mechanics from 2018-9.  

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.

Research Interests

Her research interests are in movement simulation, strategies, consequences, and assistance in children and adults with motion disorders.  She leads the research group at the KTH MoveAbility Lab. 

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, we aim to expand fundamental knowledge of the tissue and systemic behavior of persons with disability through studies spanning several biological scales. We study, on tissue levels, changes in muscle structure and function due to abnormal neurological signaling, as well as changes in bone tissue and growth due to abnormal mechanical loading. We also study, on the systemic level, the movement strategies employed by the central nervous system; these are central to effective treatment design and successful outcome. Furthermore, we strive to attain clarity as to the causal relationship between primary pathology, secondary consequences, and compensation strategies, in order to facilitate better prospective treatment design. On an organism level, she is active in the conceptual design and development of assistance-as-needed robotic exoskeletons that empower each individual to locomote to his/her best ability..

She is generously sponsored by Stiftelsen Promobila (2019-23): Multiscale and multimodal biomechanical research for persons with motion disorders. She also currently holds a Consolidating Grant from the Swedish Research Council (BADASS: BiomechAnics in motion Disorders and ASSistance) for the years 2019-24.

Publications

See her Google Scholar profile

Post Docs

Current

• Fredrik Olsson

Former

• Marta Peña Fernández
• Niklas Löfgren

PhD Students

• Longbin Zhang
• Binbin Su
• Yixing Liu
• Rakesh Krishna
• Israel Luis
• Xiaochen Zhang
• Minh Truong

Former PhD students

• Priti Yadav (PhD 2017)
• Ruoli Wang (PhD 2012)

Former Licientiate students

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

Students she co-supervises

Currently:

• Zhongzheng Wang
• Asta Danauskiene
• Zhengpei Zhang, MD (KI)
• Tim Aeppli. MD (KI)

Previously:

• 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)