Many scientists have personal connections to their research topic. Dr. Abigail Koppes is driven by her lived experience as a Sjögren’s patient. Her experience with difficult symptoms and a diagnostic odyssey motivated her to use her expertise to study autoimmune diseases like Sjögren’s. Dr. Koppes is an Associate Professor at Northeastern University and a recipient of a Sjögren’s Foundation’s 2024 Pilot Research Grant. This funding supports Dr. Koppes’ neural engineering research to better understand how Sjögren’s affects the nervous system and is a step toward future therapies that could improve life for people living with Sjögren’s and related disorders.
Getting Her Sjögren’s Disease Diagnosis
In her early 20s, while in graduate school, Dr. Koppes began to experience severe heartburn and dry eye. At the time, she dismissed the symptoms, chalking them up to too much screen time or allergies. But after she got COVID-19 in 2020, things took a turn for the worse. Her health declined sharply, with severe dry eye, trouble swallowing, fatigue, and other systemic symptoms.
Eventually, a doctor connected the dots and recognized her symptoms as possible signs of Sjögren’s. Testing showed 0 tear production, corneal abrasions, and anti-SSB positivity — all key indicators that helped confirm the diagnosis. Over the next three years, she developed additional neurological symptoms, ultimately leading to a diagnosis of autoimmune small fiber polyneuropathy, often referred to as “neuro-Sjögren’s,” mast cell activation syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).
How Her Personal Journey Shaped Her Research
For many people with Sjögren’s, the clinical journey is complex — and Dr. Koppes’s own journey was no exception. To manage her health, she built a care team with specialists whose expertise reflected her diagnoses — including a rheumatologist, an ophthalmologist, gastroenterologists, pain specialists, an immunologist, an allergist, and five different neurologists. Beyond ensuring that she receives the right care, the makeup of that multidisciplinary team also inspired her scientific path.
During a sabbatical at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Koppes began to explore questions about the intersection between gut health, the immune system, and the nervous system — mirroring her own intersecting symptoms and the multidisciplinary nature of her care team. She reflects, “You have all these different systems that are controlled by your nervous system — and big crosstalk between cells in lots of different parts of your body, like cells in your nervous system talking to immune cells. It sparked my interest in finding out what the connection is between inflammatory disorders, autoimmunity, viral triggers, and more.”
Driven by myriad unanswered questions, Dr. Koppes began to apply her expertise in neural engineering and regenerative medicine to study how autoimmune processes impact nerve health and how the nervous system behaves in diseases like Sjögren’s.
Engineering Solutions for Sjögren’s Patients
Today, Dr. Koppes leads Northeastern University’s Advanced Biosystems for NeuroEngineering Laboratory, where her team is exploring how to repair nerve damage caused by conditions like Sjögren’s disease. Many people living with Sjögren’s experience nerve-related symptoms — such as burning or stabbing pain, numbness, tingling, dizziness, brain fog, migraine, or digestive problems — yet the underlying causes of this nerve damage are still not fully understood. Dr. Koppes’s work focuses on studying how Sjögren’s affects the nervous system and finding ways to better understand nerve health and healing. She says, “My main goal is to say if we can figure out the causes, maybe we can get in there and block it from happening earlier.”
With support from the Sjögren’s Foundation, she and her team are developing innovative materials and techniques to support nerve regeneration and better understand how the nervous system is affected in Sjögren’s. One of the most innovative tools they use is a nervous system-on-a-chip, which allows them to study a miniature version of the human nervous system outside the body.
Studying Nerves Outside the Body
Organ chips — small lab devices that model human biology — have been around since the early 2000s. Originally, making these chips required specialized equipment in ultra-clean labs, and the process was slow, expensive, and difficult to modify. Researchers had to layer and etch materials like silicon, similar to how microchips in computers or cell phones are made, to create tiny chambers for cells and fluids.
Dr. Koppes and her team developed a simpler, more flexible approach using makerspace tools like laser cutters and 3D printers. They build chips from inexpensive plastic like what is used in fish tanks, along with special low-gas tape originally developed by NASA. The materials are stacked together like a sandwich to make tiny chambers where nerve cells can grow and be nourished by fluids. These handheld chips are about the size of a standard lab well plate, which allows researchers to use smaller amounts of patient-derived samples while still observing nerve activity.
This approach also gives the lab flexibility to experiment with different shapes, sizes, and numbers of chambers, making it easier to optimize the system for studying nerve function. The lab even patented this fabrication method, highlighting the innovation behind their work. “We can use these chips to design the exact physiological environment that we want,” said Dr. Koppes.
How the Chip Helps Study Sjögren’s
Funding from the Sjögren’s Foundation’s Pilot Research Grant supported the development of the nervous system on a chip. These chips provide a controlled environment where Dr. Koppes’s team can introduce human nerve cells — including nerves from the gut — and study how they respond to different factors. “No one has made the gut-brain axis on the chip,” explained Dr. Koppes. “We were the first ones to be able to do this.” By introducing patient-derived components into the nervous system on a chip, Dr. Koppes’s lab can see how they directly affect nerve cells, which may help identify what’s driving nerve dysfunction or degeneration in Sjögren’s.
Using this system, the lab can ask precise questions about what drives nerve dysfunction and degeneration in Sjögren’s. By testing human cells directly in the chips, researchers can see how nerves respond to disease factors or potential therapies without relying solely on animal models. The team is developing ways to monitor the chips in real time and run multiple experiments at once, which allows them to gather more data faster, focus on the most promising therapies, and create a clearer path toward treatments that could improve life for patients. Dr. Koppes explained that this chip technology could speed up the process for finding treatments for diseases like Sjögren’s. “Right now, it takes years to go from the lab bench to a clinical trial. And even then, so many drug candidates are lost along the way, especially during the animal testing phase.” The hope is that drug candidates could be tested on human samples using these chips, which would eliminate the need for animal testing and move promising drug candidates through the clinical pipeline faster.
The Sjögren’s Foundation: Investing in the Future of Sjögren’s Research
The Sjögren’s Foundation’s research grants support research that will benefit patients with Sjögren’s — including innovative, patient-centered projects like Dr. Koppes’s. By funding early-stage work and researchers who bring new ideas and technologies into the field, the Foundation is helping accelerate discoveries that have the potential to transform care.
You can learn more about the Foundation’s research grants by visiting our website: https://sjogrens.org/researchers-providers/research-grants
You can learn more about Dr. Koppes’s research by watching this webinar from the Arthritis National Research Foundation.
Many scientists have personal connections to their research topic. Dr. Abigail Koppes is driven by her lived experience as a Sjögren’s patient. Her experience with difficult symptoms and a diagnostic odyssey motivated her to use her expertise to study autoimmune diseases like Sjögren’s. Dr. Koppes is an Associate Professor at Northeastern University and a recipient of a Sjögren’s Foundation’s 2024 Pilot Research Grant. This funding supports Dr. Koppes’ neural engineering research to better understand how Sjögren’s affects the nervous system and is a step toward future therapies that could improve life for people living with Sjögren’s and related disorders.
Getting Her Sjögren’s Disease Diagnosis
In her early 20s, while in graduate school, Dr. Koppes began to experience severe heartburn and dry eye. At the time, she dismissed the symptoms, chalking them up to too much screen time or allergies. But after she got COVID-19 in 2020, things took a turn for the worse. Her health declined sharply, with severe dry eye, trouble swallowing, fatigue, and other systemic symptoms.
Eventually, a doctor connected the dots and recognized her symptoms as possible signs of Sjögren’s. Testing showed 0 tear production, corneal abrasions, and anti-SSB positivity — all key indicators that helped confirm the diagnosis. Over the next three years, she developed additional neurological symptoms, ultimately leading to a diagnosis of autoimmune small fiber polyneuropathy, often referred to as “neuro-Sjögren’s,” mast cell activation syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).
How Her Personal Journey Shaped Her Research
For many people with Sjögren’s, the clinical journey is complex — and Dr. Koppes’s own journey was no exception. To manage her health, she built a care team with specialists whose expertise reflected her diagnoses — including a rheumatologist, an ophthalmologist, gastroenterologists, pain specialists, an immunologist, an allergist, and five different neurologists. Beyond ensuring that she receives the right care, the makeup of that multidisciplinary team also inspired her scientific path.
During a sabbatical at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Koppes began to explore questions about the intersection between gut health, the immune system, and the nervous system — mirroring her own intersecting symptoms and the multidisciplinary nature of her care team. She reflects, “You have all these different systems that are controlled by your nervous system — and big crosstalk between cells in lots of different parts of your body, like cells in your nervous system talking to immune cells. It sparked my interest in finding out what the connection is between inflammatory disorders, autoimmunity, viral triggers, and more.”
Driven by myriad unanswered questions, Dr. Koppes began to apply her expertise in neural engineering and regenerative medicine to study how autoimmune processes impact nerve health and how the nervous system behaves in diseases like Sjögren’s.
Engineering Solutions for Sjögren’s Patients
Today, Dr. Koppes leads Northeastern University’s Advanced Biosystems for NeuroEngineering Laboratory, where her team is exploring how to repair nerve damage caused by conditions like Sjögren’s disease. Many people living with Sjögren’s experience nerve-related symptoms — such as burning or stabbing pain, numbness, tingling, dizziness, brain fog, migraine, or digestive problems — yet the underlying causes of this nerve damage are still not fully understood. Dr. Koppes’s work focuses on studying how Sjögren’s affects the nervous system and finding ways to better understand nerve health and healing. She says, “My main goal is to say if we can figure out the causes, maybe we can get in there and block it from happening earlier.”
With support from the Sjögren’s Foundation, she and her team are developing innovative materials and techniques to support nerve regeneration and better understand how the nervous system is affected in Sjögren’s. One of the most innovative tools they use is a nervous system-on-a-chip, which allows them to study a miniature version of the human nervous system outside the body.
Studying Nerves Outside the Body
Organ chips — small lab devices that model human biology — have been around since the early 2000s. Originally, making these chips required specialized equipment in ultra-clean labs, and the process was slow, expensive, and difficult to modify. Researchers had to layer and etch materials like silicon, similar to how microchips in computers or cell phones are made, to create tiny chambers for cells and fluids.
Dr. Koppes and her team developed a simpler, more flexible approach using makerspace tools like laser cutters and 3D printers. They build chips from inexpensive plastic like what is used in fish tanks, along with special low-gas tape originally developed by NASA. The materials are stacked together like a sandwich to make tiny chambers where nerve cells can grow and be nourished by fluids. These handheld chips are about the size of a standard lab well plate, which allows researchers to use smaller amounts of patient-derived samples while still observing nerve activity.
This approach also gives the lab flexibility to experiment with different shapes, sizes, and numbers of chambers, making it easier to optimize the system for studying nerve function. The lab even patented this fabrication method, highlighting the innovation behind their work. “We can use these chips to design the exact physiological environment that we want,” said Dr. Koppes.
How the Chip Helps Study Sjögren’s
Funding from the Sjögren’s Foundation’s Pilot Research Grant supported the development of the nervous system on a chip. These chips provide a controlled environment where Dr. Koppes’s team can introduce human nerve cells — including nerves from the gut — and study how they respond to different factors. “No one has made the gut-brain axis on the chip,” explained Dr. Koppes. “We were the first ones to be able to do this.” By introducing patient-derived components into the nervous system on a chip, Dr. Koppes’s lab can see how they directly affect nerve cells, which may help identify what’s driving nerve dysfunction or degeneration in Sjögren’s.
Using this system, the lab can ask precise questions about what drives nerve dysfunction and degeneration in Sjögren’s. By testing human cells directly in the chips, researchers can see how nerves respond to disease factors or potential therapies without relying solely on animal models. The team is developing ways to monitor the chips in real time and run multiple experiments at once, which allows them to gather more data faster, focus on the most promising therapies, and create a clearer path toward treatments that could improve life for patients. Dr. Koppes explained that this chip technology could speed up the process for finding treatments for diseases like Sjögren’s. “Right now, it takes years to go from the lab bench to a clinical trial. And even then, so many drug candidates are lost along the way, especially during the animal testing phase.” The hope is that drug candidates could be tested on human samples using these chips, which would eliminate the need for animal testing and move promising drug candidates through the clinical pipeline faster.
The Sjögren’s Foundation: Investing in the Future of Sjögren’s Research
The Sjögren’s Foundation’s research grants support research that will benefit patients with Sjögren’s — including innovative, patient-centered projects like Dr. Koppes’s. By funding early-stage work and researchers who bring new ideas and technologies into the field, the Foundation is helping accelerate discoveries that have the potential to transform care.
You can learn more about the Foundation’s research grants by visiting our website: https://sjogrens.org/researchers-providers/research-grants
You can learn more about Dr. Koppes’s research by watching this webinar from the Arthritis National Research Foundation.