Frank Bennett, Ph.D.:
I first met Brett in 1987. At the time, he was just starting as a graduate student. In the last 30 plus years that I've known Brett, my impression of just been reinforced that he is a hard worker and he's been very productive as a scientist here. He's one of the few people that you could say have helped create oligonucleotide therapeutics.
Mike Astion, M.D., Ph.D.:
Brett is a great example, how an extremely intelligent person with a lot of drive and belief in an idea who's willing to stick with it for an amazing amount of time can really do some world changing healthcare-related science.
Joseph Loscalzo, M.D., Ph.D.:
The field really has gone from ground zero, frankly 35 years ago where Ionis, its predecessor company was the only player to now over 150 companies that focus on oligonucleotide therapeutics. Brett's leadership, his role in guiding the technology, its application to important clinical problems has been at the forefront of moving that industry along for the benefit of patients.
Dave Ecker, Ph.D.:
One day he said to me, “The pharmacokinetic data is showing that these oligonucleotides tend to gravitate to the liver. Why don't we work on medicines that you can create by dealing with the liver?” It seems very obvious in hindsight, but none of the rest of us thought of it and as a result, we started making medicines that did work and now we have an entire portfolio based upon that insight.
Shuling Guo, Ph.D.:
I think one highlight for Brett’s career is his contribution to the TTR-amyloidosis and finding the therapy for that, so I think Brett really is a pioneer in finding this disease modifying therapies and bring them to the patients.
Sir Menelas Pangalos, Ph.D.:
Brett's contribution to the antisense nucleotide field has been incredible. A has been one of the leading companies in the world in this space. He's run research. He became head of R&D, now he's CEO of the company, and he's obviously been at the forefront of this technology and all that's delivered over many years, and it's really exciting to start to see these platforms become like small molecule and antibody platforms and really turning—I think a great innovation—a great science into something that's making a tangible difference to patients and really turning science into medicine.
Frank Bennett, Ph.D.:
Brett was one of the founding members of the OTS and has been in various leadership positions since its founding, and it's really a great honor for him to receive this in particular since he's contributed so much to the organization.
Alexas Secka:
The first time I met with Brett when he was president, my colleague Jerry and I met with him and this is what he showed up with, which was a list of all of the goals he wanted to accomplish and the action items that we needed to take to get those things done. During Brett's time as President, we accomplished everything on this list, and then some
Muthiah (Mano) Manoharan, Ph.D.:
Brett built to OTS, he knew whom to bring it to the table so that he will form a wonderful leadership, so which started with a few hundred people. Now thousands of people are attending Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society meeting now, and such a growth is because of Brett's early days vision in building this society.
Beth Hougen:
The impact that he has on up and coming leaders and up and coming scientists and business people is just really profound. His humble nature makes him very approachable, and I think then people listen to his advice and I think he's had a huge impact on people.
Shannon Devers:
He's not hierarchical. He will listen to anybody at any level who's got something that's really good to say, uses really good listening skills and lets people complete what their thoughts are and share them openly. I have to think that that actually contributed to how his scientists were able to innovate those that reported to him.
Chris Mirabelli, Ph.D.:
To me, he epitomizes what leadership is, which is its science, it's business, its finance, its regulatory, its this and that, and you have to put great teams of people together and I think Brett's got the right personality for that because in one, he's just a great leader.
Eric Swayze, Ph.D.:
It's a tough business that we're in lots of pitfalls and Brett has a way of rallying everyone together without making a big crisis out of everything and bringing people together so that they can get the really hard tasks done.
Richard Geary, Ph.D.:
I think what you see in Brett, which is a little bit unusual in a Ph.D. nerd, is an M.D. heart. He has the heart for the patients, and that's always been foremost at this company, but it's always been foremost with Brett.
Steve Becvar:
It's remarkable and inspiring to see the work that's been done impacting patients directly. I've seen it work and I've seen it happen for the patient community and to know where it started. World-class activity and research led by Brett here is amazing.
Chris Gabrieli:
As somebody who went to medical school myself and has been involved in the medical field, I understand that at the end of the line, here is what it means to patients, but had never really fully thought through not just what it means to patients, but what it means to physicians that somebody is doing the painstaking work. Brett, I hope Ionis does a lot more of that, but even if we've only done it for some patients and some diseases and some clinicians, man, what else in life is worth doing that's better than that?
Jeff Kelly, Ph.D.:
I don't think that anyone in the world has had the influence that Brett has had in terms of putting important medicines into the clinic to change the progression of neurodegenerative diseases.
Annemieke Aartsma-Rus, Ph.D.:
I'm really happy that Brett now receives this Lifetime Achievement Award. I think it's a bit overdue. In hindsight, we might realize that he's done a lot more than we know about.
