Annika Keller, Ph.D
(also known as Annika Armulik)
Annika.Keller@usz.ch
I graduated from the Tartu University, Estonia and obtained my PhD in 2001 from Uppsala University, Sweden. My PhD studies, focused on the structure and function relationship of beta 1 integrins, showed that transmembrane domains of integrin subunits could reposition in the plasma membrane and suggested that this repositioning will take place during integrin activation (PMID: 10601259). After obtaining my PhD, I joined Prof. Jonas Frisen’s lab and a few years later Prof. Christer Betsholtz’s lab at the Karolinska Institute , Stockholm, Sweden where I developed an interest in the biology of CNS vasculature. My work in the Betsholtz lab contributed to the understanding of the role of pericytes, perivascular cells surrounding capillaries, in regulating the blood-brain barrier (PMID: 20944627). In 2011 I joined the Institute of Neuropathology, Zürich University Hospital, Switzerland as a Marie Heim-Vögtlin fellow. The scientific environment and colleagues at the institute were instrumental to the discovery that mice hypomorphic for Pdgfb develop vessel associated calcifications. This work led to the publication of a collaborative study demonstrating the causal effect of loss-of-function mutations in PDGFB in mice and humans in formation of brain calcifications (PMID: 23913003). In 2014 I started my independent laboratory at the Department of Neurosurgery, Zürich University Hospital focused on the pathomechanism of brain capillary calcification and regulation of the blood-brain barrier.
Twitter: @annikakeller_
ORCID number:0000-0003-1466-3633
Google Scholar
LinkedIn