Anna Hickerson, PhD

Anna Iwaniec Hickerson
Areas of Expertise

Cardiovascular Devices, Medical Diagnostics and Devices

Dr. Hickerson, who joined KGI in October 2005, received her BS in Engineering and Applied Science (2000) and her PhD in Bioengineering (2005) from the California Institute of Technology. Since joining KGI, she has worked on the design of multiple diagnostic instruments including subsystems in sample preparation, amplification, and detection of nucleic acids.

Hickerson is a listed inventor on 12 issued U.S. patents and several more pending. She has consulted for multiple diagnostic and medical device companies. In addition to her research and teaching at KGI, Hickerson has also taught Biomechanics, Introduction to Biomedical Engineering, and Biosignal Processing at Harvey Mudd College.

Anna I. Hickerson, Hsiang-Wei Lu, Kristina Roskos, Thomas Carey, Angelika Niemz "Disposable miniature check valve design suitable for scalable manufacturing" Sensors and Actuators A 203 (2013) 76- 81

Kristina Roskos, Anna I. Hickerson, Hsiang-Wei Lu, Tanya M. Ferguson, Deepali N. Shinde, Yvonne Klaue, Angelika Niemz "Simple System for Isothermal DNA Amplification Coupled to Lateral Flow Detection" PLOSone 2013; 8(7):e69355

Doebler RW, Erwin B, Hickerson A, Irvine B, Woyski D, Nadim A, Sterling JD. "Continuous-Flow, Rapid Lysis Devices for Biodefense Nucleic Acid Diagnostic Systems". Jala (1535-5535) 2009;14(3):119-125

Forouhar AS, Liebling M, Hickerson A, Nasiraei-Moghaddam A, Tsai HJ, Hove JR, Fraser SE, Dickinson ME, Gharib M. "The embryonic vertebrate heart tube is a dynamic suction pump". Science 2006;312(5774):751-75.

Hickerson AI, Gharib M. "On the resonance of a pliant tube as a mechanism for valveless pumping". Journal of Fluid Mechanics 2006;555:141-148

Hickerson AI. "An Experimental Analysis of the Characteristic Behaviors of an Impedance Pump" [Bioengineering PhD]. California Institute of Technology; 2005 Apr 28.

Rinderknecht D, Hickerson AI, Gharib M. "A valveless micro impedance pump driven by electromagnetic actuation". Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering 2005;15(4):861-866

Hickerson AI, Rinderknecht D, Gharib M. "Experimental study of the behavior of a valveless impedance pump". Experiments in Fluids 2005;38(4):534-450

Arash Kheradvar, Morteza Gharib, Anna Hickerson (2014) Helically actuated positive- displacement pump and method, US Patents 7883325 and 8794937

Robert Doebler, Christopher Cooney, Anna Hickerson, James D. Sterling, Ali Nadim (2014) Systems and Devices for Isothermal Biochemical Reactions and/or Analysis, US Patents  8153064 and 8784736

Belgrader, Phil, Christopher G. Cooney, Robert Doebler, Anna Hickerson, Bruce Irvine, Ali Nadim, James Sterling, Reza Miraghaie (2014) Temperature control device with a flexible  temperature control surface, US Patents 7955841, 8334117, 8603783, 8759085

Timothy L. Hunter, Edith W. Fung, Mitch Mallough, Catherine P. Ha, Dustin P. Hassell, Anna Iwaniec Hickerson, Meng-Hsin Lin, Joshua Lawrence Miller, Johnathan Louis Weaver, Joy Catherine Won (2013) Remote Control, D680972

Derek Rinderknecht, Morteza Gharib, Laurence Loumes, Arian Sureush Forouhar, Anna Hickerson (2012) Resonant Multilayered Impedance Pump, US Patent 8092365

Morteza Gharib, Anna Hickerson, Richmond A. Wolf (2011) Intravascular miniature stent pump, US Patent 7998190

Morteza Gharib, Anna Hickerson, Jijie Zhou, Flavio Noca (2007) Hydroimpedance pump US Patent 7,163,385