PhD Candidates

Farzad Elhami

Farzad was born in Mashhad, Iran. He has a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. He also obtained his M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano in Italy in 2021. For his master’s thesis, he joined HERLAND LAB in KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden to become involved in a one-year research project under the supervision of Professor Anna Herland and Dr. Thomas Winkler. His master’s thesis involved chip design and fabrication for modeling the blood-brain barrier (BBB), with a particular focus on the use of novel hydrogels to improve the biological functionality of this tissue. In 2022, he embarked on his PhD and joined DC MatureTissue Program to continue his studies and accomplish PhD Topic #2 under the supervision of Dr. Andreas Teuschl-Woller, Dr. Peter Ertl, and Dr. Mario Rothbauer.

Elias Ellersdorfer

After passing the A–levels, Elias Ellersdorfer studied Technical Chemistry at the TU Wien where he received his BSc in 2020. Subsequently, he specialized in analytical and physical chemistry during his master studies in Technical Chemistry at TU Wien. During his diploma thesis he worked intensively on Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) in the Research Group for Surface Analytics, Trace Analytics and Chemometry of Prof. Andreas Limbeck. In 2022, he submitted his diploma thesis and received his Dipl.–Ing. (equivalent to MSc). Afterwards he enrolled for his PhD studies at TU Wien andUASTW as member of the DC Mature Tissue project. Within this project, Elias will work on PhD Topic#3. He is supervised by Dr. Martina Marchetti–Deschmann (TU Wien) and Dr. Carina Huber–Gries (UASTW).

Sabrina Kaliscuk

Sabrina Kaliscuk started her bachelor’s degree in 2016 and finished it as a biomedical scientist. Driven by her interest in research she further did her master’s degree in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine at the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien and graduated in 2022. Her Master’s project was dedicated to the functionalization of silk fibro in sponges to simulate body components. Currently, Sabrina is part of the Mature Tissue Doctoral College and works at theTechnical University of Vienna in Univ. Prof. Dr.rer.nat. Aleksandr Ovsianikov’s research group ‘3D Printing and Biofabrication’, supervised by Dr. Olivier Guillaume, Univ.Prof. Dr.rer.nat. Aleksandr Ovsianikov and FH–Prof. Priv.–Doz. Dr. techn. Andreas Teuschl. Besides that, she is an active memberof the professional association ‘Biomed Austria’ and an editorial board member of the associated journal.

Ekaterina Oleinik

Ekaterina is a PhD student in Experimental Biomechanics as part of the Mature Tissue Doctoral College. She received a Master’s degree from the Institute of Biomedical Systems and Biotechnology (Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University). Her Master’s project was devoted to studying the non – apoptotic role of p53, particularly the interaction between p53, c – Abl, and ERK1/2 in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases in in vitro models with an intention to model Alzheimer’s disease pathology. Currently, her research focuses on the micromechanics of tendons and their modifications under inflammatory conditions.

Roland Rose

Roland Rose received his MSc. in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine from the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien. In 2020, he wrote his master’s thesis on the physical characterization of therapeutically applied shock waves at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Experimental and Clinical Traumatology in Vienna under the supervision of Cyrill Slezak. Afterwards, he spent one year at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. At the Chair of Biophysics, Roland Rose worked in the group of Friedhelm Serwane on the production of an automated cultivation platform for retinal organoids. Since April, Roland Rose is working on a co-culture system of artificial muscle-like constructs. The aim of t he project is the establishment of strategies that allow for a vascularized and in nervated tissue construct mimicking functionality and composition of skeletal muscle. The role extracellular matrix plays in facilitating these aspects of “mature tissue” is one of Roland Rose ’s main research interests.