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Executive Vice President, Discovery Medicinal and Process Chemistry
Wenqing Yao joined Incyte in February 2002 as Director, Chemistry. Dr. Yao has over 20 years of experience in medicinal chemistry. For the past nine years, Dr. Yao has held roles of increasing responsibility at Incyte, most recently as Senior Vice President, Discovery Chemistry. Prior to joining Incyte, Dr. Yao held scientific research positions with DuPont Pharmaceuticals and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company from 1996 to 2002. Dr. Yao received his B.S. in chemistry from Xuzhou Normal University, his M.S. in organic chemistry from NanKai University and his Ph.D. in organic/medicinal chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.
Andrew P. Combs, Ph.D., joined Incyte in 2003 where he is currently Vice President of Discovery Chemistry. He has led medicinal chemistry programs in oncology and inflammation to >10 nomination candidates during his ~19 year tenor in the pharmaceutical industry. INCB024360 (Epacadostat) - an IDO1 inhibitor, INCB054329 - a BRD inhibitor, and INCB050465 - a PI3Kd inhibitor are currently being studied in human clinical trials for oncology. He is also responsible for the Discovery Analytical, Chemical Technologies, Chemical Informatics and the Computational Chemistry departments. Prior to Incyte, Dr. Combs was a Director at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Dupont-Merck where he led programs in the CNS area and founded a >50 member cross-functional target-directed Parallel Synthesis Team. Andrew’s research interests embrace the application of innovative technologies to expedite the drug discovery process, such as fragment-based approaches, structure-based drug design, parallel synthesis, microwave-assisted synthesis and automated LCMS purification methods. He has published >100 research articles/book chapters, been granted >30 patents, presented numerous invited lectures, served on editorial boards of three scientific journals (currently J. Med. Chem. Letters), co-chaired >10 ACS conferences, served on a variety of NIH review panels, and currently is a member of the SAB for Boston University CMD and the University of Delaware NIH-funded COBRE. Dr. Combs was a HHMI post-doctoral fellow in the laboratories of Prof. Stuart L. Schreiber at Harvard from 1994-1996 and holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from UCLA and BS degrees in Chemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Led medicinal chemistry team to the identification of the first-in-class immunotherapy drug, INCB024360 (Epacadostat), an inhibitor of indoleamine-dioxygenase-1 (IDO1). Non-exclusive collaborations with Merck, BMS, AZ and Genentech have been established to conduct Phase I/II oncology studies to evaluate the efficacy and safety of their respective anti-PD-L1 and anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitors, in combination with Incyte’s oral indoleamine dioxygenase-1 (IDO1) inhibitor, Epacodostat.
Led medicinal chemistry team to the identification of INCB050465 (PI3Kd inhibitor) and INCB054329 (BRD inhibitor) which are currently in Phase I oncology studies.
Concurrently the working group chair for the CRF1 Project, head of the Parallel Synthesis Group, head of the Peptide Synthesis Group, and oversaw a collaboration with Albany Molecular Research Institute (AMRI).
Initiated and led a Parallel Synthesis group that discovered novel inhibitors for a broad range of drug targets in CNS, oncology, cardiovascular, and anti-microbial indications. The team was also responsible for the development and dissemination of innovative technologies to the medicinal chemistry department, including of parallel synthesis, microwave synthesis and preparative LCMS technologies.
"Synthesis and Structure-Activity Relationship Analysis of Dehydroamino Acid Derivatives Related to the Azinomycins", Andrew P. Combs, Diss. Abstr. Int. B 1994, 55(11) 4850.
