Cognito Therapeutics Appoints Chief Scientific Officer

Cognito Therapeutics, a clinical-stage medical device company developing non-invasive neurostimulation therapies for neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, has appointed Mihály Hajós, Ph.D., Pharm. D., as chief scientific officer.
 
Dr. Hajós joins Cognito with an accomplished background in both industry and academia. Prior to Cognito, Dr. Hajós made contributions to therapy development programs as head of Experimental and Translational Neurophysiology at Biogen, with a focus on using neurophysiological methods to study the mode of action of current and potential pharmacotherapies. He has also contributed to the design of multiple clinical proof-of-mechanism and proof-of-concept studies at Pfizer. His most recent work has been centered on neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s disease, fronto-temporal dementia, and Huntington’s disease. Prior to his current appointment as adjunct professor at Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Hajós held a faculty position in clinical medicine at University of Oxford. Dr. Hajós earned a Ph.D. in medical sciences from University of Göteborg, Sweden and a Pharm. D. in human physiology and pathophysiology from A. Szent-Györgyi Medical University, Hungary.
 
“Mihály’s appointment comes at an exciting time for Cognito as we begin to analyze data from our three ongoing clinical studies in Alzheimer’s disease and plan future scientific and clinical endeavors,” said Zach Malchano, president of Cognito. “His experience, leadership and knowledge of neurophysiology is a perfect match for the opportunity our company has to develop therapies for neurodegeneration based on gamma entrainment.”
 
“I have been very interested in the findings of Cognito’s founder Professor Li-Huei Tsai and her team on connecting neuronal network oscillations to the brain’s innate immune system, and its potential application for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. Hajós. “I am excited to join Cognito because of this strong scientific foundation, and look forward to exploring the clinical applicability of this approach, developing novel therapies, and addressing basic neurophysiological questions related to this devastating disease.”
 
Cognito Therapeutics is a clinical-stage medical device company developing a non-invasive, in-home neurostimulation therapy platform based on a discovery from founders Professors Li-Huei Tsai and Ed Boyden at MIT, who showed a profound treatment response in mice using gamma entrainment stimulation (GENUS). Their research— published in the journals Nature, Cell and Neuron—showed that using visual and auditory stimulation at gamma frequency ameliorated effects of Alzheimer’s in mice, such as a reduction in amyloid plaques and tau tangles as well as an activation of microglia. Cognito Therapeutics is actively enrolling patients in multiple clinical studies of the therapy and plans to expand its clinical program in the second half of 2019. Cognito Therapeutics has an exclusive license to IP from the original MIT findings as well as multiple published and pending patents.