William Atkins

Professor and Chair, Medicinal Chemistry

Atkins Lab, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Drug Design/Metabolism/Transport and Research and Training Consortium, Medicinal Chemistry Faculty, School Faculty

Telephone: (206) 685-0379

Email: winky@uw.edu

Office Location: H164D

Website: Atkins Lab

Expertise:
Analytical Techniques, Biotechnology, Drug Metabolism, Drug Transporters, Mechanisms-of-Drug-Interactions, Molecular Biophysics, Pharmacology, Protein Dynamics, Structural Biology

Education

  • BS in Chemistry, The College of William and Mary
  • MA in Pharmacology, Harvard University
  • PhD in Biochemistry, The University of Illinois

Research Interests

  • Drug Metabolizing Enzymes
  • Therapeutic Antibodies
  • Protein structure and Function

Taking Students: No

Courses Taught

  • MEDCH 531
  • MEDCH 501
  • MEDCH 528
  • MEDCH 327
  • MEDCH 527
  • MEDCH 529

Biography

Dr. William M. Atkins earned a Masters Degree in Pharmacology from Harvard University in 1983 and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1988. From 1988-1991 Dr. Atkins performed postdoctoral research in the Department of Chemistry at The Pennsylvania State University, as an NIH Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow.

Dr. Akins is currently The Sidney D. Nelson Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at The University of Washington, having been on the faculty there since 1991. He is the Graduate Program Director for the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and co-Director of the Analytical Biopharmacy Core. His research is focused on the enzymology of detoxification enzymes and drug metabolism, with particular emphasis on biophysical mechanisms. Professor Atkins has been awarded NIH grants for research on several enzyme systems including Cytochrome P450s, Glutathione S-transferases, and the P-glycoprotein efflux transporter. Recent research efforts also include characterization of nanoparticles for drug delivery and therapeutic antibody drug conjugates.

Professor Atkins serves on the International Organizing Committee for The Biennial International Conferences on Cytochrome P450’s and the International Microsomes and Drug Oxidations Conference. Dr. Atkins has served on several NIH and NSF Review Panels. He is also a member of the Editorial Boards of Archives in Biochemistry and Biophysics and Environmental Toxicology.

 

Recent Publications

The origins of nonideality exhibited by monoclonal antibodies and Fab fragments in human serum. Larsen HA, Atkins WM, Nath A. Protein Sci. 2023 Dec;32(12):e4812. doi: 10.1002/pro.4812.

Nanodisc-embedded cytochrome P450 P3A4 binds diverse ligands by distributing conformational dynamics to its flexible elements. Paço L, Hackett JC, Atkins WM. J Inorg Biochem. 2023 Jul;244:112211. doi: 10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2023.112211. Epub 2023 Apr 5.

Low molecular weight ligands bind to CYP3A4 via a branched induced fit mechanism: Implications for O2 binding. Redhair M, Nath A, Hackett JC, Atkins WM. Arch Biochem Biophys. 2023 May 1;739:109582. doi: 10.1016/j.abb.2023.109582. Epub 2023 Mar 21.

Reversibility and Low Commitment to Forward Catalysis in the Conjugation of Lipid Alkenals by Glutathione Transferase A4-4. Scian M, Paço L, Murphree TA, Shireman LM, Atkins WM. Biomolecules. 2023 Feb 9;13(2):329. doi: 10.3390/biom13020329.

Long Range Communication between the Drug-Binding Sites and Nucleotide Binding Domains of the Efflux Transporter ABCB1. Clouser AF, Atkins WM. Biochemistry. 2022 Apr 19;61(8):730-740. doi: 10.1021/acs.biochem.2c00056. Epub 2022 Apr 6.