E. B. Hershberg Award for Important Discoveries in Medicinally Active Substances: Stanley T. Crooke

Sponsor: Merck Research Laboratories

Citation: For his work as principal inventor of antisense drug discovery. Antisense is a new paradigm in drug discovery for virtually all targets and disease states.

Current position: founder, chairman of the board, and chief executive officer, Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Education: B.S., pharmacy, Butler University; Ph.D., pharmacology, Baylor College of Medicine; M.D., Baylor College of Medicine

Crooke on what gets his creative juices flowing: “I have been interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms by which drugs work. The questions we are able to ask today are sufficient enough to be exhilarating and are all the stimulus I need, but I have an even more compelling motivation: the patients we hope to serve and their needs.”

What his colleagues say: “Crooke is the father of ‘antisense’ technology, a new and ingenious platform to address many a dreaded disease in ways that many considered practically impossible only a few years ago. His perseverance, belief, resolve, and creative genius in promoting and developing this new platform has led to antisense-based drugs that dig much deeper in the genomic information and allow hitherto unexplored ways to address diseases not attainable by other more conventional drug therapies.”—Stephen Hanessian, University of Montreal