Dr. Christa Nutzhorn

Dr. Nutzhorn joined Cytocentrics in July, 2003. She has executive responsibility for global sales and marketing activities. Dr. Nutzhorn has over 20 years of experience in business development for the life science marketplace.

Before joining Cytocentrics, she was acting for four years as General Manager at Zymark with responsibility for Central Europe. From 1989 to 1999, she served in different sales- / service-management positions for Germany and Switzerland in the bioanalytical department at Beckman Coulter. Dr. Nutzhorn received her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry and Spectroscopy (NMR, MS) from the University of Hannover in 1980 and her diploma from the same institute in 1977.

Dr. Thomas Knott

Dr. Knott has been one of the driving forces behind the foundation of Cytocentrics since 2001. He has leadership in development and finance and also brings entrepreneurial as well as scientific drive and expertise to the company's team.

Prior to founding Cytocentrics, Dr. Knott had a postdoctoral research position at the NMI (Natural and Medical Sciences Institute at the University of Tuebingen), Germany, where he completed the "Proof of Principle" of the automated patch clamping technique by which he laid the foundation stone for Cytocentrics. Dr. Knott graduated in biology at the University of Tuebingen and holds a doctorate in neurobiology from the same University with an emphasis in electrophysiology and microelectrode array application.

Dr. Peter van Stiphout

Dr. Peter van Stiphout joined Cytocentrics in June 2003. He was appointed as director of Cytocentrics BV in January 2005 with responsibility for the CytoPatch™ chip production.

Prior to assuming his position at Cytocentrics, he worked for two years as Business Development Manager at Bionchip for chip related products. Before this, he held the position of Process/Engineering Manager at the OnStream Waferfab, a company developing and producing magnetic heads for data storage. His career started as Project Manager at the Philips Research Laboratories, where he worked for five years on semiconductor laser and LED. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Utrecht in 1987.

Supervisory Board

• Peter Sygall
  Chairman of the Supervisory Board
  CEO of Sygatech BV
• Uwe Bräuer
  Managing Director of GENIUS Venture Capital GmbH
• Guy Dechamps
  Manager Biolab Division of Sartorius AG

Scientific Advisory Board

Prof. Dr. Erwin Neher
Prof. Dr. Neher shares the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1991 with Bert Sakmann. The prize was awarded for their discoveries concerning the function of single ion channels in cells. The development of the patch clamp technique of Prof. Neher and Prof. Sakmann was the paradigm on which the basis of our company's CytoPatch™ technology was formed.

Since 1983, Prof. Dr. Neher has been Director of the Department for Membrane Biophysics at the Max-Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Goettingen, Germany.

The development of the patch clamp technique that revolutionised modern biology and research took place at this institute, where he worked from 1972 as a research associate. During that time, he also held a research associate position as a guest at Yale University (New Haven, Conn. USA). Prof. Dr. Neher's impressive electrophysiological background goes back to his graduate and postdoctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin and the Max-Planck Institute in Munich between 1966 and 1972.

Prof. Dr. Neher earned a degree in physics from the Technical University of Munich, received his Master of Science from the University of Wisconsin and his Ph.D. from the Technische Hochschule in Munich.

Prof. Dr. Neher's excellent scientific achievements have been recognized by many honorary degrees and international awards.