Dr. Frank Bennett is the Chief Scientific Officer at Ionis Pharmaceuticals and one of the founding members of the company. He is responsible for continuing to advance antisense technology and expanding Ionis drug discovery platform. Dr. Bennett is also the franchise leader for neurological programs at Ionis. He has been involved in the development of antisense oligonucleotides as therapeutic agents, including research on the application of oligonucleotides for inflammatory, neurological diseases and cancer, oligonucleotide delivery, pharmacokinetics and medicinal chemistry.

Dr. Bennett is a co-recipient of the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for his contributions to the discovery and development of SPINRAZA® (nusinersen) and the 2018 Hereditary Disease Foundation's (HDF) Leslie Gehry Brenner Prize for Innovation in Science for his leadership and continued commitment to developing antisense therapies for Huntington's disease (HD).  In addition, Dr. Bennett the recipient of the Lifetime achievement awards from Ionis Pharmaceuticals and the Oligonucleotide Therapeutic Society, the Zimmerman Award from the University of New Mexico and Alumni Award from Baylor College of Medicine.

Dr. Bennett has published more than 230 papers in the field of antisense research and development, and he is an inventor on more than 175 issued U.S. patents.

He received his PhD in Pharmacology from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas and his B.S. degree in Pharmacy from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico. He performed his postdoctoral research in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology at SmithKline and French Laboratories.

Dr. Bennett serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Hereditary Disease Foundation.