Ian Huggins, Ph.D.

Research Fellow, Medicinal Chemistry at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Speaker

Ian Huggins is part of the Receptor Biology group within Medicinal Chemistry at Ionis Pharmaceuticals where he contributes to the Ligand Conjugated Antisense (LICA) targeted delivery platform via ligand engineering and bioconjugation to oligonucleotides. He currently leads the Ionis Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) working group, comprising multiple functional areas including ligand discovery and engineering, oligonucleotide synthesis and bioconjugation, and in vivo pharmacology. Together, his team has engineered and validated multiple peptide and antibody ligands for delivery of ASO and siRNA across the BBB and into the central nervous system.

Dr. Huggins holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from UC San Diego, where he studied human developmental genetics and biochemistry in human embryonic stem cells with Karl Willert. He remained at UCSD to pursue postdoctoral research on siRNA therapeutics with Steve Dowdy where he designed, expressed, and conjugated engineered antibody ligands for targeted siRNA delivery. In April 2020 he joined Ionis Pharmaceuticals where he continues to focus on expanding the reach of oligonucleotide therapeutics through LICA.