Morten Scheibye-Knudsen

Head of the Biology of Ageing Laboratory at the University of Copenhagen

For Morten Scheibye-Knudsen, M.D., Dr. Med. Sci., Ph.D., 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 Doctor of Medicine in 2007 from Københavns Universitet where he also earned his PhD in Neurodegeneration in Accelerated Aging in 2016.

He started his working experience as a student worker at Novo Nordisk Engineering in 1998. He learned to be a multidisciplinary worker, from being a secretary to IT specialist. In the same year he was drafted as a Firefighter. Soon after, he started with his seven year studies for his MD.

In late 2008, Morten work drastically changed. He became Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institute on Aging at National Institute of Health 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.