About us

Dr. Volker Lang has more than 20 years of experience in development and commercialization of biotechnology products, encompassing basic research, R&D, business development and licensing, as well as commercial operations and management. Prior to joining AbCheck, Volker served as Chief Business Officer of Affimed Therapeutics AG (now Affimed N.V.), AbCheck’s parent company. Previous positions include Vice President for Corporate Development at Scil Technology GmbH, where he successfully partnered the company’s technology portfolio with two major pharmaceutical companies. Volker was also Vice President of Business Development & Licensing at Pieris AG, where he successfully closed key strategic partnership deals. Prior to Pieris, Volker served as Chief Operating Officer at Cosmix GmbH and Biotech Manager at Fresenius Kabi AG, where he gained considerable CMC and production experience. Volker holds a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Braunschweig, Germany.

MSc. Jičínský has many years of experience in managing companies in the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria. Before joining AbCheck, he worked as an executive at Wilden Czech, where he built a development department and production plants for the pharmaceutical and automotive industries. Mr. Jičínský is a graduate of the Czech Technical University in Prague.

Dr. Oleh Petriv joined AbCheck in 2018 as Vice President New Technology Development. With his wealth of experience in R&D and technology development, he leads a team of talented researchers developing entirely new and unsurpassed methods of antibody discovery by functional criteria. Oleh received his MSc in Biochemistry from Lviv State University, Ukraine, and holds a PhD in Cell Biology from the University of Alberta in Canada. After several years of research on the role of lipids in longevity, he joined the engineering laboratory led by Dr. Carl Hansen in Vancouver. There he studied design and manufacturing of microfluidic chips, worked on high-throughput single-cell PCR and sequencing methods. Oleh is one of the co-founders of AbCellera, a company focusing on monoclonal antibody discovery based in Canada.

Dr. Claudia Wurzenberger joined AbCheck in 2022 as VP Project Management. She brings to the company broad expertise in managing and executing projects for the discovery and development of therapeutic proteins in different disease areas, including immuno-oncology and respiratory diseases. Prior to joining AbCheck, Claudia was a Project Leader at Pieris Pharmaceuticals, leading several internal and partnered programs from early discovery into IND-enabling studies. Her experience also includes serving as Senior Scientist at Immunocore Ltd. Claudia holds a PhD in Biochemistry from ETH Zurich, and an MSc from the Technical University of Munich.

Dr. Pavel Pitule joined AbCheck in 2018 as a scientist in the New Technology Development department and has been an integral part of the team that developed the company’s functional sorting platform, focusing on the introduction of in-droplet assays and setting up sorting system for sensitive and selective selection of functional antibodies. In 2022, he took over responsibility for AbCheck’s Discovery department, leading a team of scientists running the company’s antibody discovery projects and also coordinating the advanced technology development of AbCheck’s microfluidics technology. Pavel gained his MSc. degree in Immunology at the Faculty of Sciences, Charles University and his Ph.D. researching cancer biomarkers at the Faculty of Medicine at Charles University in Pilsen, Czech Republic. Before joining AbCheck, he led a group of scientists working in the field of liquid biopsies and solid cancer biomarkers, published over 30 scientific articles and mentored multiple doctoral and post-doctoral students.

Dominik Hinz joined AbCheck in 2014 as Head of the Phage Display group, working as project lead on the discovery of therapeutic antibodies in numerous partnered programs. After taking over the role of Head of the Core Technologies department, in 2021 he became Head of the IND-Enabling Studies department, supporting AbCheck’s clients in developing and conducting IND-enabling studies for their therapeutic antibodies. Since the beginning of 2023 he focuses on the development of AbCheck's portfolio of library-based technologies. Dominik received his Master's degree in Biotechnology from the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, before joining Prof. Dr. Arne Skerra’s group at the Technical University of Munich as a research associate focussing on generation, engineering and characterization of anticalins (antibody mimetics). Prior to joining AbCheck Dominik served as R&D scientist at MorphoSys AG in partnered antibody discovery programs.

Dr. Joanna Rybarczyk joined AbCheck in 2020 as an Immunology Scientist, bringing to AbCheck many years of expertise in immunology and cellular biology, vaccine development and in vivo experimental techniques. In 2022 she became a Director in the Cell Culture group. Joanna holds a Master’s degree in Biotechnology Engineering from the University of Life Sciences, Poznan, Poland and a PhD in Veterinary Sciences from the University Gent, Belgium. Prior to joining AbCheck, she was a Principal Investigator and Postdoctoral Researcher at the Laboratory for Immunology and Animal Biotechnology, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, University Gent, Belgium.

Dr. Yuriy Rzhepetskyy joined AbCheck in 2018 as a cell biologist, strengthening the company’s cell biology and membrane protein biochemistry expertise. He has been a part of the team that developed the company’s functional sorting platform, focusing on single cell functional assay development, stable cell lines design, antibody production and final function confirmation. Yuriy has more than ten years of experience in cell signaling research and earned his PhD in Cell Biology at the Institute of Cell Biology in Lviv, Ukraine. Prior to joining AbCheck, he held a postdoc position in the Ion Channels and Diseases Group headed by Dr. Norbert Weiss at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry in Prague, Czech Republic. He is the author of 16 scientific articles.

Dr. Peter Milovník joined AbCheck in 2011 as Head of Protein Production. He also led antibody engineering projects, worked as project lead for phage display customer projects and was involved in the development of AbCheck’s Rabbit Mass Humanization platform. In 2018 Peter transitioned to the New Technology Development team and in 2022 he became a Director in the Molecular Biology and Protein Engineering group. He received his Master's degree in chemistry from the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava, Slovakia, and holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Bayreuth, Germany. Peter joined the lab of Prof. Andreas Plückthun at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, as a postdoc and worked on the development of protein engineering and selection techniques for in vitro evolution of GPCRs. Furthermore, he worked on directed enzyme evolution in the group of Prof. Don Hilvert at the ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and as a senior scientist in the bioanalytical assay development for Celerion Switzerland AG.

Dr. Josef Čáslavský joined AbCheck in 2018 as a scientist in the Phage Display group, supporting the discovery of therapeutic antibodies for different customers. In 2019 he became the Head of Phage Display and successfully completed a number of antibody discovery projects using the phage display technology. In 2021 Josef joined the newly formed IND-Enabling Department as a group leader and has been involved in investigation and characterization of new therapeutic antibodies using various in vitro cell-based assays. Since 2022 he is the Director of Antibody Characterization in the IND-Enabling Department and later in the Microfluidics group with main focus on the screening of immune repertoires. Josef holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.