Travis Wager PhD

Dr. Wager is a Drug Discovery Design Lead for Pfizer World Wide Research and Development (WWRD) at the newly established Pfizer-Cambridge Neuroscience Medicinal Chemistry group in Boston. Until April, 2012 he was an investigator and lab head at the Pfizer Groton, CT drug discovery site. While he spends the majority of his time on laboratory-based drug discovery, he is also a Research Project Leader for the Neuroscience group where he delivers projects from the exploratory portfolio through the clinic.

Travis has had a long research interest in the development of innovative medicines for the treatment of CNS mediated disorders. Recently, his reseach has centered on biological timing, in the fields of circadian timing mechanisms and the manipulation of the central clock. He received a Bachelor of Science Professional Chemistry degree at University Wisconsin Oshkosh in 1993 and a Doctor of Philosophy. in 1998 at the University of Utah. During his research at the University of Utah he received the Cheves T. Walling Award for the outstanding scientific contribution to the natural product synthesis field. After earning his Ph. D., he accepted a Postdoctoral Fellowship at University of Utah with Prof. Gary E. Keck where he investigated the Julia Coupling and its application towards the total synthesis of Rhizoxin. He began his industrial career as a Research Scientist at Pfizer Inc. and was promoted to Research Fellow in 2012. During his time at Pfizer he received numerous awards; the most notable was the W.E. Upjohn Award for innovation. As a Neuroscience Medicinal Chemist he has focused on early safety derisking strategies and alignment of attributes (potency, ADME, CNS penetration, and safety) in one molecule. He has taught several short courses and has given invited lectures on drug discovery, dealing with the BBB and the development of the CNS MPO desirability algorithm. He has over 90 patents, publications and external presentations including two most cited articles, one in the journal of ACS Chemical Neuroscience (2010-2014). He is an active member of ACS and is currently on the Editorial Advisory Board for ACS Chemical Neuroscience. Travis also has a strong track record of project delivery. He has delivered two H3 antagonists that have completed Phase 2 trials in several Neuroscience indications such as ADHD and narcolepsy and one perhipherial indication, Allergic Rhinitis. Currently, he is Research Project Leader for a kinase inhibitor project that has identified an IND ready inhibitor, representing the first centrally penetrant kinase inhibitor to advance to this stage within Neuroscience.