Team

In September of 2018 the Acus Laboratories GmbH was brought to life by a team of four researchers and the Max Planck Society. Collaborative research at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne, Germany, and the Institute for Molecular Biotechnology in Vienna, Austria, lay the foundation for the spin-out, headquartered in Cologne, Germany. Matheus Dyczynski joined the team in Feb 2019.

Dr. Moritz Horn

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

Moritz Horn studied Biochemistry at the University of Tübingen (Germany) and completed his PhD in Genetics from the University of Cologne (Germany) in 2014. Working as postdoctoral fellow in the group of Dr. Martin Denzel at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne (Germany) Moritz became expert in forward genetic screens using cellular systems and led successful industry collaborations.

Prof. Dr. Josef Penninger

Co-founder and Advisor

Josef Penninger is the founding scientific director of IMBA in Vienna and the Director of the Life Science Institute at the University of British Columbia. He studied Medicine at the University Innsbruck and worked as post-doctoral fellow at the Ontario Cancer Institute. He is a Professor of Genetics at the University of Vienna, Adjunct Full Professor of Immunology at the University of Toronto, and holds an honorary Professorships from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Qingdao University. Josef is also the founder of APEIRON Biologics.

Dr. Martin Denzel

Co-founder and Advisor

Martin Denzel studied Human Biology in Marburg (Germany) and performed his PhD at the Sanford Burnam Institute in San Diego (USA). He became expert in forward genetics during his postdoctoral work at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne, where he started his own research laboratory in the department of ‘Molecular Genetics of Ageing’ in 2014.