The Lundgaard Lab was founded in 2017 by a starting grant from the Knut & Alice Wallenberg Foundation and is part of the Wallenberg Centre for Molecular Medicine (WCMM) at Lund University Sweeden.
The research at Lundgaard Lab revolves around the Glymphatic System which due to its relatively recent discovery, holds great potential for new and groundbreaking discoveries in the field of neurodegenerative diseases.
The Lab
Lund University
Lund University was founded in 1666 and it is repeatedly ranked among the world’s top 100 universities. The University has around 44 000 students and a staff of more than 8000 spread across Lund, Helsingborg, and Malmö. We are united in our efforts to understand, explain and improve our world and the human condition.
The Department for Experimental Medicine counts 60 independent research groups and excellent core facilities, and it continues to grow, making it is a modern and vibrant place to both work and study.
Max Wictor
Alumnus
Max Wictor, MD student. Max is from Sweden and worked at a pharmacy before starting medical school. Max helps assist with the 7 Tesla MRI and he has just started to discover the world of the glymphatic system. When Max isn’t googling all the new English words and concepts, he likes to play the electric bass in a band or play around with some nice chords on the piano.
Denys Kovalenko
Alumnus
Denys is a young trainee who fell in love with neuroscience in 9th grade, after reading Behave. This passion eventually brought him to Dr. Iben Lundgaard, who kindly invited a young Ukrainian cossack to join the lab. He came in June 2022 to learn all the research techniques in the lab and get involved in science, ending up a year after with a project focusing on the CSF outflow pathways from the CNS. In his work Denys does a lot of light-sheet microscopy, teaches medical students and helps with laboratory administration. When he is not spending time getting his head around new scientific concepts, you can find him training Wing Tsun, singing in the choir and hiking in Skåne. Denys’ biggest dream, apart from opening his own lab someday, is the Ukrainian victory.
Arzu Petersen
Alumnus Arzu grew up in Minnesota in the US. Before coming to the lab, she had a three-year stopover in Vienna, Austria, to get her Master’s degree in Cognitive Sciences. Having studied Neuroscience in her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Minnesota, she is thrilled to get back to her passion of natural sciences the brain by investigating the glymphatic system in depth. In her free time, Arzu will do just about anything to be adventuring in the outdoors (in all seasons!), and is grateful that the nearby lakes, forests, and moose bring a familiar touch from home. You won’t be surprised to find her happily inside a canoe, tent, lake, or maybe even up a tree! As a former baker in Vienna, she is also eager to explore the delights of Swedish culture.
Marta Ramos
Alumnus
Marta is from Spain and prior to her arrival at Lund, she served as a research assistant in labs all over the world, including Australia, Malta, and France. Marta holds a BSc in Biotechnology and MSc in Neuroscience and is interested in neuroinflammation as well as imaging & visualization techniques. Marta specializes in neuroinflammatory diseases with a focus on the glymphatic system but sometimes also draws beautiful illustrations for our scientific publications. Marta is a member of the Medical Doctoral Student Council, where she serves as the representative of the council in the Lund Doctoral Student Union, which represents all PhD students at the university. Marta is learning Swedish and some computer programming on the side. In her free time, she also enjoys training Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. Interestingly, Ramos means ‘branches of the perivascular tree’ in Spanish.
Nicholas Bèchet
Alumnus
Nicholas Bèchet, PhD student. Nic is from South Africa but also spent a few years in the Netherlands before moving to Sweden. He has a BSc in Medicine and MSc in Neuroscience and currently works on light sheet imaging of the glymphatic system, in both rodent and pig brains. Nic enjoys cooking as well as spending time on physical health and is passionate about his African heritage. Nics goal here in Lund is to develop new techniques and model systems to better understand fundamental glymphatic physiology and translate this knowledge from animals to humans. Fun fact: Nic is a 3rd generation South African but has a diverse family heritage including Irish, Welsh, English, Scottish, Danish and Mauritian ancestors. Nics favorite pastime is hanging out in tattoo parlors.
Nagesh Shanbhag
Alumnus
Nagesh Shanbhag, MD-PhD. A native of India, Nagesh completed his basic medical training in Goa, India before embarking on an international career. He has a MSc in Experimental & Clinical Neurosciences from University of Regensburg, Germany and a PhD in neurosciences from University of Groningen, The Netherlands. Nagesh also has postdoctoral experience from Uniformed Services University, part of the US federal government and is now developing new methods to study glymphatic function and manipulations of the system for translational relevance. Besides research in the lab, Nagesh is also an avid painter who made the cover of World Neurosurgery journal (Vol. 116, 2018). Nagesh is also the lab’s prankster, and when he has a spare moment he likes to set up pranks or give the PI heart attacks by saying that grants have not been submitted when in fact they have.
Roberta Battistella
Alumnus
Roberta Battistella, PhD student (3rd year). Roberta was the first to join the lab. She is from a sunny coastal town in Italy not so dissimilar to Lund. She is interested in how the glymphatic system is affected in Parkinson’s disease. Roberta likes espresso and is a master of stereotaxic injections. In her free time, she likes to grow plants from seeds and keep them alive in the challenging Swedish climate. You can make Roberta’s ears bleed if you talk about putting pineapple on the pizza.
Sam Madjidian
Alumnus
Sam Madjidian, M.Sc. Sam is the only full time Swedish-born lab member and handles all the translations from English to Swedish for the lab. Sam is the research administrator for the group and Iben’s Swedish-conversation partner. Sam also speaks Greek and Farsi (and Portuguese/Spanish) and enjoys working and practicing with his language skills. He shares an office with Nagesh Shanbhag and has recently been recruited to Shanbhag’s School for Gifted Pranksters, an opportunity of a lifetime. His last name Madjidian might actually be Magician misspelled on his birth certificate. No one knows, it is all a mystery!
Chenchen Liu
Alumnus
Chenchen Liu, MD-PhD. Chenchen is from, China, and moved to Sweden with his family to train in the glymphatic system. Chenchen likes steaks and green tea and playing football with his daughter. Each of the Chen’s in Chenchen’s name mean different things. The first means morning and the last means dragon.
