Armin Picenoni was born and grew up in Champfer, a small village close to St. Moritz in Switzerland. After a B.Sc. in biological Chemistry he did his Msc. in Chemistry at the Zurich University for Applied Science and specialized in material sciences and cell biology. He then started a position as cryo-EM specialist at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics in the Ban & Pilhofer groups at the ETH Zurich during which the MGB-101 design was developed. 

He has always enjoyed modifying existing equipment or developing new tools for front-line research, especially using the newest technologies and methods.

Armin is doing the design, production and quality control of our products at mygridbox.com and takes care of our website.

Dr. David Sargent was born and grew up in Victoria, B.C., Canada. After a B.Sc. in Physics at UBC (Vancouver, Canada) he did his Ph.D. in Biophysics at the University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario, Canada). He had Postdocs at the ETHZ (Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics) and the Biochemistry Department at the University of Sydney (Australia). On joining the staff of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics (ETHZ) he worked first on the use of artificial lipid bilayers to study membrane binding and transport of ions, Later David entered the field of structural biology in Tim Richmond’s group using both x-​ray diffraction and cryo-electron microscopy.

Always a tinkerer, he developed methods to address a variety of problems including the development of a simple holder for cryo-electron microscopy grids. This project has recently been extended in collaboration with Armin to offer a new line of colorful grid storage boxes.

David is taking care of the sales, customer care and assembly of our products.