Nutromics hires Kevin Plaxco as CSO

Nutromics said on September 7 that it had appointed Professor Kevin W. Plaxco as chief scientific officer, adding a senior scientific hire as the Melbourne-based company moves toward the 2027 launch of its first product. The company said the appointment comes as it prepares to commercialize a DNA-based sensing platform and extend the technology to additional targets. Nutromics described Plaxco as the inventor of its DNA-based sensing technology and said he has had a long association with the company. (prnewswire.com) For Nutromics, the hire is a corporate staffing event tied directly to a product timetable. (streetinsider.com) For Plaxco, it formalizes a role around a platform he already helped create. The company said his strategic focus will be on broadening the wearable sensing platform beyond its initial application as commercialization work continues. (prnewswire.com) ### Who is Kevin Plaxco, and why does Nutromics name him now? Kevin W. Plaxco is a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, with appointments spanning chemistry, bioengineering and mechanical engineering, according to university profiles. UCSB says his group develops optical and electrochemical biosensors built around proteins, peptides and DNA, and the Plaxco Lab describes one of its main advances as an electrochemical aptamer-based sensor platform for real-time molecular sensing in the body. Nutromics said on September 7 that Plaxco’s scientific background is directly relevant to the company’s platform because he invented the DNA-based sensing technology on which the business is built. (prnewswire.com) That makes the appointment less a fresh scientific pivot than a step to put one of the core inventors into an executive role ahead of launch. That characterization — that the move links invention to commercialization — is an inference from the company’s statement and Plaxco’s university profiles. ### What exactly is the company developing? Nutromics described itself as a startup focused on DNA-based sensing and said its platform is wearable. The company said its first product is scheduled for launch in 2027 and that work is also underway to extend the platform to other targets. (chem.ucsb.edu) UCSB materials on Plaxco’s research give some context for the underlying science. The university says his lab’s electrochemical aptamer-based sensors are designed for real-time, in situ molecular sensing and are intended to be generalizable across targets rather than tied to a single analyte. Nutromics did not, in the announcement reviewed, specify the exact commercial product, pricing or regulatory pathway. ### What did Nutromics say Plaxco will do as CSO? Nutromics said Plaxco’s strategic focus will be on extending the wearable platform to other targets. The company framed the appointment as bolstering expansion efforts for the DNA-based sensing platform as it approaches commercialization. (prnewswire.com) That wording places the role at the intersection of product launch and pipeline development. The first task is tied to the 2027 product debut Nutromics has already flagged; the second is the broader scientific program to adapt the sensing platform for additional uses. (prnewswire.com) ### What can be verified beyond the company release? PR Newswire listed the Nutromics announcement at 1:14 a.m. Eastern Time on September 7, 2026, and mirrored versions carried the same details on other syndication sites. (plaxco.chem.ucsb.edu) UCSB faculty pages independently confirm Plaxco’s academic positions and long-running work on biosensors based on DNA and related biopolymers. The available public material does not, however, provide fresh independent reporting on financing, customer agreements or regulatory filings tied to the product launch. What is verified is narrower: Nutromics announced the appointment on September 7, Plaxco is a UCSB scientist whose research matches the platform description, and the company says its first product is due in 2027. (prnewswire.com) ### What comes next for Nutromics? Nutromics said the next milestone is the 2027 launch of its first product. (prnewswire.com) Plaxco’s role, as described by the company, will cover both that commercialization push and the extension of the wearable DNA-based sensing platform to additional targets. Any further update is likely to come through company announcements on product specifics, trial or validation data, partnerships, or launch timing as 2027 approaches. (prnewswire.com) For now, the named participants in the next step are Nutromics and Plaxco, with the milestone fixed by the company as its first product launch in 2027. (prnewswire.com)