Larry Wienkers, Ph.D.

Larry C. Wienkers received his BS in Chemistry and Biology in 1986 and his MS in Chemistry in 1988 from Western Washington University. He then earned his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Washington in 1993 under the direction of Dr. William F. Trager. He did postdoctoral work in the department of Drug Metabolism at the Upjohn Company and subsequently joined the company as a Research Scientist 1995. In 1998, Larry became Director of Drug Metabolism Enabling Technologies at Pharmacia & Upjohn and in 2002 became Executive Director of Pharmacokinetics, Dynamics and Metabolism at Pfizer. In 2004 Larry moved to Amgen and recently retired as Vice President and Global Head of the Department of Pharmacokinetics and Drug Metabolism. He an American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Fellow with over 80 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters. One of Larry’s long-standing research interests is focused on exploring bioactivation pathways associated with small molecule drug metabolism with particular focus on the prospective application of this information to predict drug-drug interactions in the clinic. To this end, he and collaborators apply a multidisciplinary approach using organic chemistry, biochemistry and biophysical techniques to study cytochrome P450 mechanism-based inactivation and the characterization of biotransformation pathways of novel therapeutics.