Co-Founder, CEO & President, Denali Therapeutics
Ryan Watts is the Chief Executive Officer of Denali Therapeutics. He is a co-founder, President and a member of the Board of Directors.
Under Ryan’s leadership, Denali has invented a proprietary blood-brain barrier platform for the delivery of therapeutic proteins, antibodies and oligonucleotides to the brain, and has advanced multiple candidates into clinical testing for common neurodegenerative diseases and rare genetic diseases. In March 2026, Denali received FDA accelerated approval of the first medicine enabled by this platform, AVLAYAH™ (tividenofusp alfa-eknm), for the treatment of neurologic symptoms in eligible pediatric patients with Hunter syndrome (MPS II). AVLAYAH is the first FDA-approved biologic specifically designed to cross the blood-brain barrier and the first new treatment option approved for Hunter syndrome in nearly 20 years. Watts has also led efforts to raise significant capital to advance Denali’s pipeline and has been instrumental in forging partnerships to accelerate the discovery and development of medicines for neurodegeneration.
Ryan previously served as Director of the Department of Neuroscience at Genentech, where he led the company’s re-entry into neuroscience. The Watts laboratory focused on drug discovery for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, with an emphasis on understanding mechanisms of neurodegeneration guided by human genetics and on blood-brain barrier biology and delivery.
Ryan obtained his Ph.D. from Stanford University’s Department of Biological Sciences and his B.S. in Biology from the University of Utah.