Tomi K. Sawyer
Dr. Tomi K. Sawyer has made transformative contributions to peptide and peptidomimetic drug discovery spanning four decades. His work has yielded three marketed drugs and numerous clinical candidates targeting GPCRs, proteases, kinases and protein-protein interactions. As a graduate student he invented the superpotent melanocortin analog NDP-MSH, which became afamelanotide, the first melanocortin therapeutic approved for clinical use. His subsequent industrial career pioneered peptidomimetic approaches to protease inhibition and later advanced stapled peptide technology for intracellular targets.
Sawyer grew up on his grandfather's farm near Greenbush, Minnesota. He earned a B.S. cum laude in chemistry from Moorhead State University, now Minnesota State University Moorhead, in 1976. He completed his Ph.D. with Distinction in organic chemistry at the University of Arizona in 1981 under Victor J. Hruby, where he first became interested in peptides during melanocortin research.
During his doctoral studies, Sawyer and colleagues invented [Nle4,D-Phe7]-α-MSH, known as NDP-MSH, a linear analog of α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone with dramatically enhanced potency and metabolic stability. Their 1980 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper established NDP-MSH as one of the most potent melanotropins ever characterized. Decades later, the compound was developed by Clinuvel as afamelanotide and marketed as Scenesse for treating erythropoietic protoporphyria, an orphan skin disease involving severe phototoxicity. It received European approval in 2014 and FDA approval in 2019, becoming the first melanocortin peptide therapeutic.
In 1981 Sawyer joined The Upjohn Company as a Scientist, where he focused on protease-targeted peptidomimetic inhibitor drug discovery. His group developed peptidomimetic renin inhibitors including Ditekiren, which advanced into clinical trials for hypertension, and made early contributions to HIV protease inhibitor design. He rose to Senior Research Scientist and received the Kagan Drug Discovery Award for Lead Finding in Pharmaceutical Research in 1990.
From 1991 to 1997 Sawyer served as Section Director and Research Fellow in Peptide and Peptidomimetic Chemistry at Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert, receiving the President's Distinguished Scientist Lecture Honorarium in 1994. He then joined Ariad Pharmaceuticals as Director of Drug Discovery in 1997, eventually becoming Senior Vice-President. At Ariad he contributed to the discovery of ponatinib, a multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor marketed as Iclusig for treatment-resistant chronic myelogenous leukemia, and ridaforolimus, a macrocyclic mTOR antagonist now used in drug-eluting coronary stents.
In 2007 Sawyer became Founding Chief Scientific Officer of Aileron Therapeutics, where he advanced stapled peptide technology for targeting intracellular protein-protein interactions. His team developed ALRN-6924, a stapled α-helical peptide that acts as a dual antagonist of MDM2 and MDMX to reactivate p53 tumor suppressor function, which has progressed through Phase II clinical trials for cancer treatment.
From 2014 to 2019 he served as Distinguished Scientist in Global Chemistry at Merck Research Laboratories, where he led the Peptide Drug Hunter Network of over 100 scientists. In 2019 he founded Maestro Therapeutics, a consulting enterprise supporting peptide drug discovery in academia, biotech and pharma.
Sawyer served the American Peptide Society as Councilor, as Co-Chair of the 18th American Peptide Symposium in 2003, and as President from 1999 to 2001. He was Founding Editor-in-Chief of Chemical Biology and Drug Design from 2006 to 2011 and serves on the editorial advisory board of Peptide Science. He holds adjunct professorships at the University of Massachusetts, the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the Northeastern University Center for Drug Discovery.
His honors include the Vincent du Vigneaud Award in 1988, the Distinguished Alumni Award from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 2006 and the Professional Achievement Award from the University of Arizona College of Science in 2015. He is credited with more than 600 scientific publications, patents and presentations.
