Draft:Stanley T. Crooke

Stanley T. Crooke is an American pharmacologist and the founding CEO of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, an RNA-targeted therapeutics company. In 1989, he opened Isis Pharmaceuticals, now known as Ionis, which would go on to pioneer a drug discovery platform, antisense oligonucleotides. Over the years, Ionis has developed several drugs including Spinraza, which is designed to treat spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). In 2020, Crooke founded the N-Lorem foundation, a non-profit designed to take advantage of the technology discovered at Ionis to provide experimental treatment to patients with extremely rare genetic disorders.

Early Life and Education
Stanley Crooke grew up in southwest Indianapolis. Coming from a working-class family, Crooke was the first in his family to finish high school. He studied pharmacy at Butler University, and attempted law school for one week before dropping out. Crooke then attended the Baylor College of Medicine, where he completed a combined MD-PhD program in pharmacology.

Career
After working at Bristol Laboratories, Crooke transitioned to research and development at GlaxoSmithKline. In 1989, he founded Ionis Pharmaceuticals, initially named Isis Pharmaceuticals, serving as its CEO until 2019. During his tenure, several antisense-oligonucleotide therapeutics were developed, including:


 * Vitravene: For the treatment of cytomegalovirus retinitis (CMV).
 * Volanesorsen: For the treatment of familial chylomicronemia syndrome (FCS).
 * Kynamro: An orphan drug for managing homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH).
 * Tegsedi: For the treatment of the polyneuropathy of hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis (hATTR).

Dr. Crooke has also worked as an adjunct professor in the Departments of Pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania, the Baylor College of Medicine and UCSD, the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at UCLA, the Department of Biology at San Diego State University.

In 2020, Dr. Crooke founded the n-Lorem Foundation, a non-profit organization that focuses on creating individual experimental treatments for patients with rare genetic diseases. As a non-profit, they provide experimental antisense oligonucleotides to patients for free. Here, he developed an ASO to be the first medication to treat a mutation in the KIF1A gene. He was recognized by the SD500 in 2023 as one of the most influential people in San Diego.

Notable Awards
Crooke was awarded the 2019 Massry Prize along with Ryszard Kole.

Personal Life
Stanley Crooke is married to Rosanne Crooke, who is also a pharmacologist.