For Morten Scheibye-Knudsen, associate professor, University of Copenhagen, aging is the largest risk factor for most diseases and damage to our genome is likely the cause of aging. He is focused on exploring the physiological consequences of DNA damage and what we can do to intervene in genotoxic insults. His goal is to understand, modulate, and perhaps treat aging and age-related diseases.
Morten earned his MD in 2007 from the University of Copenhagen where he also earned his DMSc (Doctor of Medical Sciences, higher doctorate) in Neurodegeneration in Accelerated Aging in 2016.
He started his working experience as a student worker at Novo Nordisk Engineering in 1998. In the same year he was drafted as a Firefighter. Soon after, he started with his seven year studies for his MD. During which he became a Teacher where he taught third year medical students microscopic and macroscopic anatomy of the internal organs covering everything from the reproductive system to the oropharynx. Towards the end of his studies he received a scholarship to work in the laboratory of professor Bjørn Quistorff on mitochondrial bioenergetics. After graduation, he worked as Physician at Slagelse Hospital and at Nuuk Medical Clinic in Greenland where he mostly managed the emergency room.
In 2008, Morten became Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Vilhelm Bohr at the National Institute on Aging, NIH, in Baltimore, Maryland. His work focused on the cross-talk between DNA repair and mitochondrial function in neurodegeneration and aging. In 2013, at NIH, he became Research Fellow and in 2015, Visiting Professor.
For six years, Morten lectured on the Biological Basis of Aging for graduate students at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
In addition to his academic activities Morten manages his companies Forsoegsperson.dk and Mitodb.com and is a board member at the Longevity Vision Fund and Molecule Protocols.