Maria Asplund

Biography

Maria Asplund studied Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering at the University of Linköping, Sweden (1997-2003). After the diploma she continued with a PhD at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (2003-2009) in the group of prof. von Holst. The focus of the PhD project was conjugated conducting polymers as a means to improve neural interfaces. The polymer development was conducted in close collaboration with the group of prof. Inganäs (Linköping University), and biological evaluations of the material was performed together with Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm. Following the PhD, Maria Asplund continued to work as a Senior Researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology. Subsequent projects have ranged from continued work with conducting polymer electrodes to experimental work on cellular behaviour in electrical fields. Maria Asplund is a member of the Centre for Organic Bioelectronics (OBOE) since 2005, funded by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research. In Oct 2011 Maria Asplund was appointed as a Junior Fellow at the FRIAS School of Soft Matter Research. Her continued work at FRIAS aims to address specific problems at neural implants with conducting polymer technology. The ambition is to investigate the performance of the polymer materials for specific applications to fully understand to which extent these materials can contribute to the success of a neural implant. This work is carried out in collaboration with Prof. Stieglitz at IMTEK Freiburg. Since April 2013 Maria Asplund is also appointed a Junior Group Leader for the Cluster of Excellence BrainLinks-BrainTools at the University of Freiburg.

Research Interest

Her current research focuses on Conducting polymers for neural interfaces