Accelerated Muscle Biotechnologies (AMB)

Accelerated Muscle Biotechnologies strives to provide access and support to small-angle X-ray diffraction experiments for muscle scientists around the world. They are a team of career research scientists in skeletal and cardiac muscle mechanics and exercise physiology, with offices in Boston (USA) and Hamburg (Germany). AMB recognizes the value of X-ray diffraction technologies and their mission is to accelerate its integration into academic, biotech, and healthcare markets.

In the interview we present you the team: Michel Kühn, Dr. Khoi D. Nguyen, Anna Good und Dr. Anthony L. Hessel.

How did the team meet, and what convinced you that you would be great co-founders? Was there a defining moment when you knew you were the right fit for each other?

AMB began as an idea from Dr. Anthony Hessel (Universitätsklinikum Münster) for a method to improve and innovate particle accelerator technology to streamline researchers’ data collection at the beam line and speed up throughput, all while improving data quality. He put out a call on Twitter for like-minded researchers interested in taking on this concept and turning it into a biotech start-up, which is how Dr. Khoi Nguyen joined the team. Between them and Michel Kühn, a PhD student currently working under Dr. Hessel at UKM, and Anna Good, MBA and business manager of AMB, the company began to take shape and evolve over the past two years.

What are Team AMB’s unique skillsets?

Each of the members of Team AMB have their own unique skillsets that they bring to the metaphorical table.
Dr. Khoi Nguyen is an engineer turned muscle scientist. Before coming to AMB, he developed new MRI methods to non-invasively measure heart muscle stiffness in patients at the Cleveland Clinc. Now, as the technical lead of AMB's experimental systems and image analysis tools, he is pushing the field forward by ensuring that these systems are readily available to muscle scientists everywhere.
Dr. Anthony Hessel is a heart and skeletal muscle physiologist who is unusually obsessed with the underlying mechanisms of muscle function. This led him to use deep-tech methods such as X-ray diffraction. He wants everyone to study muscle with the most advanced methods and works hard to provide that access through AMB.
Michel Nicolas Kuehn finished his bachelor’s degree in sports science and has an international master´s degree focusing on sports medicine and molecular exercise physiology at the Institute of Sports and Preventive Medicine (Saarland University) and in cooperation with the Liverpool John Moores University. He is a PhD student (since 2022) under the supervision of Prof. Wolfgang Linke and Dr. Anthony Hessel studying the role of titin and its associated proteins in skeletal muscle contractions via Xray diffraction at the University of Muenster.
Anna Good has a Masters of Business Administration focused on business management from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. She is also a Helmholtz Fellow, having conducted dozens of interviews throughout her spring 2024 fellowship and onward through the year to perfect AMB's offerings to future and current customers and collaborators.

Do you find that there are challenges to working internationally?

There are numerous challenges that come from working with a transatlantic team, as well as customers from all over the world. Shipment of temperature-sensitive materials is always a risk, and one that AMB is trying to mitigate with collaborations with particle accelerators around the world. This will not only lessen the carbon footprint of shipping these materials, but will also lower the risk of ruined samples and delayed projects. In addition, these collaborations provide the opportunity to train future muscle research scientists in MyoSAXS and beam line work, expanding the reach of this critical aspect of research.

Based on your experience, what advice would you give to someone searching for the right co-founder?

The most important thing to look for in a co-founder is someone who shares your passion for the topic, who will go the extra mile for it to work. It is one thing to have an idea for a project or a start-up company, but going from idea to founding is a goal that many fail to reach because they do not have the drive to follow through and commit to the work, as well as a willingness to adapt to new challenges. Starting a company with another person, or group of people, requires a significant amount of trust to be put into those people and their work, and they in yours.