Geneva, Switzerland – The Wyss Center today announced the appointment of Richie Kohman, PhD, to the position of Chief Scientific Officer. Dr Kohman brings more than 15 years of research and industry experience in the development of transformative technologies for healthcare and society.
“The addition of Richie to the Wyss Center team comes at an exciting time,” said Mary Tolikas, PhD, MBA, CEO of the Wyss Center, “Richie brings a broad knowledge of neuroscience and of all aspects relating to the intersection of synthetic biology and synthetic chemistry. His deep expertise with gene editing, nanotechnology, gene delivery, and stem cell therapy will provide us with invaluable contributions as we expand our activities in neurobiology with our collaborators both here in Switzerland and internationally.”
“I am thrilled to join the Wyss Center. The Center’s research model perfectly positions it to make a real world impact in neuroscience and neurotechnology.” Said Richie Kohman, PhD. “We are only just beginning to understand the massive complexity of the brain and there is still much to learn about its cellular and molecular diversity. Developing technologies that can measure or influence brain function offers a tremendous opportunity to improve the diagnosis and treatment of disease.”
Dr Kohman joins the Wyss Center from Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, where his research included mapping neuronal connectivity in large brain volumes and genetic labeling of mammalian brains to establish their fundamental architecture. He has also worked on the development of nanomaterial delivery agents and neurosurgical techniques for drug delivery to the brain.
Prior to joining the Wyss Institute, Dr Kohman worked as Group Leader at the startup company Expansion Technologies, Inc. where he led business development efforts and brought techniques and reagents for high resolution molecular mapping of tissues to market.
Dr Kohman holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University while also serving as an affiliate of the MIT Media Lab.
