Denali Therapeutics Co-Founder and CEO Ryan Watts, PhD Delivers the Opening Plenary at AAIC 2026 in London on Sunday July 12: 'Accelerating the Discovery and Development of Medicines for Neurodegeneration' — Blood-Brain Barrier Biologic Delivery Anchored on the TransportVehicle Platform, the March 2026 FDA-Approved AVLAYAH (Tividenofusp Alfa) for Hunter Syndrome, and Alzheimer's Investigational Programs DNL628 (Oligonucleotide TransportVehicle Targeting MAPT Tau) and DNL921
Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI) co-founder and CEO Ryan Watts, PhD delivered the opening plenary address at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) 2026 in London on Sunday July 12, 2026, titled 'Accelerating the Discovery and Development of Medicines for Neurodegeneration.' The presentation covered advances in neurodegeneration biology, biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment-effect assessment, and biologic therapies designed to cross the blood-brain barrier. Denali's proprietary TransportVehicle (TV) platform leverages the body's iron transport system (transferrin receptor) to shuttle antibodies, enzymes, and oligonucleotides into the brain. AVLAYAH (tividenofusp alfa-eknm) received FDA accelerated approval March 2026 as the first FDA-approved biologic specifically designed to cross the blood-brain barrier, for the treatment of neurologic manifestations of Hunter syndrome in certain pediatric patients. DNL628 is enabled by Denali's Oligonucleotide TransportVehicle (OTV) and targets the MAPT gene encoding tau, with data expected 1H 2027; DNL921 is a separate Alzheimer's candidate with Phase 1/2b data expected in 2027. The plenary framing ties to the Lonza-Nona Biosciences TfR1 blood-brain-barrier deal covered in Saturday's digest.