Mikael Sandell

Project description
The project focuses on the combination of established endovascular techniques and x-ray guiding technologies with the MEMS technology for super selective, minimally invasive biopsies. Endovascular technologies and x-ray guiding techniques have revolutionized many areas in medicine. It involves using the bodies vasculature as paths for thin plastic or metallic wires and tubes to gain access to otherwise hard-to-reach areas. At the same time, the technological development of transcriptomics has enabled the analysis of smaller and smaller tissue samples. The pace of this development has paved the way for developing smaller biopsy devices than are currently available. The current commercially available devices are more invasive and take a larger sample than is necessary for analysis. Many diseases require early diagnostics to better care for the patient and some are not possible without taking biopsy samples. The projects intended outcome will lead to the ability of diagnosing tissue samples taken at new areas with less trauma to the patient.

Personal background
Mikael received his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Materials Science at KTH, Stockholm. After his graduation he started working at the Karolinska Institute with laser machining of endovascular biopsy devices for two years. Since March 2018 he started a joint PhD programme together with Göran Stemme and Niclas Roxhed at the department of Micro and Nanosystems at KTH, Stefan Jonsson at the department of mechanical properties of metals at KTH and Staffan Holmin, professor at the department of clinical neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet. His research is mainly focused on the development of minimally invasive biopsy devices for super selective sampling of various tissues.