Enigma Biomedical - USA Announces Appointment of Hartmuth Kolb, PhD as Chief Scientific Officer

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Enigma Biomedical USA (EB) today announced the appointment of Hartmuth Kolb, PhD as Chief Science Officer (CSO). Dr. Kolb’s passion for innovation and scientific rigor has driven his extensive career and broad recognition. He will join Enigma at the beginning of March, 2024.

In his 10 year tenure at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, he served as the Vice President, Neuroscience Biomarkers and Global Head of Imaging. Before joining Johnson & Johnson, Dr. Kolb had roles as SVP Research at Avid/Lilly and was VP of Biomarker Research (PET Radiopharmaceutical Development) at Siemens Medical Solutions. In this latter role, Kolb and his team developed 18F-T807 (aka Flortaucipir), the first Tau-imaging PET biomarker, now available as Tauvid®. Prior to his tenure at Siemens, Dr. Kolb was Associate Professor of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute and Chief Operating Officer and Head of Chemistry at Coelacanth Corporation, a company founded by Professor Barry Sharpless to develop novel chemical technologies. In this role, Kolb became a founding Click Chemist and the first author of the foundational Click Chemistry publication which led to Barry Sharpless being awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Dr. Kolb serves as the co-chair of the Neuroscience Steering Committee of the Foundation for NIH (FNIH) biomarkers consortium, where he and the other co-chairs oversee a portfolio of pre-competitive biomarker projects related to neurodegeneration and neuropsychiatric diseases.

Dr. Kolb has a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the Imperial College, London.

“I am passionate about precision neuroscience, based on objective disease-related biomarkers,” said Dr. Kolb, “and am looking forward to joining the first-class Enigma team to develop new imaging biomarker solutions for diagnosis and staging of CNS disorders, which will enable the development of disease modifying therapies for patients.”

“Enigma, and our affiliate companies, are focused on providing information and technologies to researchers and clinicians to enable the improvement of brain health,” said Rick Hiatt, Chief Executive Officer of Enigma Biomedical USA and President and CEO of Meilleur Technologies, Inc. “We are thrilled to have Hartmuth join our team and help us develop our long-term strategies and support our future direction. Hartmuth is joining an already strong EB team in which, along with our recently appointed Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Samantha Budd- Haeberlein, we have deep expertise in drug and biomarker development for neurodegenerative disease and a catalyst to continue to achieve our Company’s mission and vision.”

About Enigma Biomedical - USA

Enigma Biomedical USA’s vision is to be the premier provider of imaging biomarkers for neurological pathologies, associated information technology, and related tools to accelerate the development, approval, and adoption of effective therapies to treat neurodegenerative diseases. EB’s neuroimaging biomarkers, including NAV-4694, provide Pharma and Academic researchers with best-in-class tools for enabling Disease-Modifying Therapy development with the highest possible precision and accuracy. EB also recently announced a partnership with AbbVie for exploration of their novel 4R Tau PET Imaging Biomarkers.