Dr. Crooke is Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Isis Pharmaceuticals.  Isis is a development stage biopharmaceutical company that is focused on a new paradigm in drug discovery, antisense oligonucleotides.  Since Dr. Crooke and his colleagues founded Isis in 1989.  The Company has completed its initial public offering in May 1991, and has reported broad progress in antisense technology and its rapid conversion to therapeutic product opportunities.  Isis was the first company to commercialize an antisense drug and has achieved a number of important corporate collaborative relationships.  In 2006, Dr. Crooke was named in Nature Biotechnology as one of biotechnology’s influential individuals.

Dr. Crooke is currently a member of the San Diego State University BioScience Center Scientific Advisory Board, the Current Drugs Advisory Board, and the Editorial Board of Gene Therapy and Molecular Biology.  He is also Editor-in-Chief of Current Opinion in Anticancer Drugs and Section Editor for Biologicals and Immunologicals for Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs.

Prior to founding Isis, Dr. Crooke was President of Research and Development for SmithKline Beckman Corporation (SKB).  He also coordinated the research and development activities of SKB including its instruments, diagnostics, animal health and clinical laboratory businesses.

Prior to joining SKB, Dr. Crooke helped establish the anticancer drug discovery and development program at Bristol Myers, which succeeded in bringing to market a significant number of drugs.

During his career, Dr. Crooke has supervised the development of 19 drugs currently on the market and others in development.  In addition to his involvement in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Crooke also maintains active academic positions.  He is an adjunct professor at San Diego State University, and has won a number of teaching awards.  He has authored over 400 publications and has edited 20 books.  Dr. Crooke is active in molecular and cellular biology and pharmacology of antisense oligonucleotides.

Dr. Crooke received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas and his B.S. in Pharmacy from Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana.

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Ms. Parshall is Director, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Isis Pharmaceuticals. She is responsible for overseeing the operations of finance, legal, patents, manufacturing, and business development and is also very involved in the Company’s corporate communications activities.  Ms. Parshall joined Isis in November 1991. Previously, Ms. Parshall was a Partner with the firm of Cooley Godward LLP, now Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, where she represented several health care companies in a general practice specializing in corporate partnering and other technology-based transactions.

Dr. Bennett is Senior Vice President of Research at Isis Pharmaceuticals. He is responsible for preclinical antisense drug discovery research. Dr. Bennett is one of the founding members of the company. He has been involved in the development of antisense oligonucleotides as therapeutic agents, including research on the application of oligonucleotides for inflammatory and cancer targets, oligonucleotide delivery and pharmacokinetics. He also runs the company's antisense mechanism program which is focused on the development of RNase H, RNAi, micro-RNA and splicing. Dr. Bennett has published more than 90 papers in the field of antisense research and development and has more than 100 issued U.S. patents.

Prior to joining Isis , Dr. Bennett was Associate Senior Investigator in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology at Smith Kline and French Laboratories, GlaxoSmithKline (currently, GlaxoSmithKline).

Dr. Bennett received his B.S. degree in Pharmacy from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico and his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas . Dr. Bennett performed his postdoctoral research in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology at Smith Kline and French Laboratories, where he studied the signal transduction pathway of leukotrienes.

Dr. Ecker is a co-founder of Isis Pharmaceuticals and currently serves as Vice President of Isis and Chief Scientific Officer of Ibis Biosciences, Inc., a majority-owned subsidiary of Isis. He oversees all areas of the program including the Ibis T5000 Biosensor System and related biodefense initiatives, emerging infectious disease identification technology, drug discovery, patents, business development, strategic direction and the management of government and corporate partnerships.

Prior to founding Isis Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Ecker was Assistant Director, Department of Molecular Genetics at SmithKline and French Laboratories (SK&F). While at SmithKline and French Laboratories, he focused on applications of molecular biology to drug discovery. Dr. Ecker contributed to a number of SmithKline and French Laboratories therapeutic programs including cancer, arthritis/inflammation, antiviral and antifungal. He constructed and supervised the SK&F oligonucleotide synthesis facility.

Dr. Ecker has published in a number of fields, including biodefense technology development, chemistry, DNA synthesis, gene construction and expression, protein structure and function, enzymology and gene regulation. He has authored more than 100 scientific publications and issued US patents.

Dr. Ecker received his Ph.D. in chemistry and biochemistry from Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and was an American Cancer Society Fellow in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.

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