Tomi is a Chief Drug Hunter and President of Maestro Therapeutics, a consulting and advisory enterprise supporting peptide drug discovery across academia, biotechnology, and the pharmaceutical industry. With more than four decades of experience in industrial drug discovery, Tomi is widely recognized as a pioneer in the development of peptide-based therapeutics, including macrocycles, stapled peptides, and peptidomimetics, and is well known for his contributions to GPCRs, kinase, protease, and protein–protein interaction drug discovery. 

Over his distinguished career in both pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, Tomi has held senior scientific leadership roles including Distinguished Scientist in Global Chemistry at Merck & Co., Chief Scientific Officer at Aileron Therapeutics, Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery at ARIAD Pharmaceuticals (now part of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company), and Senior Director of Chemical Sciences at Pfizer. 

Dr. Sawyer is the inventor or key contributor to several notable therapeutic programs, including the FDA-approved drugs Scenesse® (an MC1R peptide agonist for erythropoietic protoporphyria) and Iclusig® (a BCR-ABL kinase inhibitor for resistant chronic myelogenous leukemia). His scientific work also includes the development of ALRN-6924, the first stapled peptide dual MDM2–MDMX antagonist to enter clinical trials. Across his career, Tomi has authored or contributed to more than 600 scientific publications, patents, and presentations. 

In addition to his scientific leadership, Tomi has served as President of the American Peptide Society and co-Chair of the 18th American Peptide Symposium (Boston). Tomi serves on the Scientific Advisory Board and the Board of Directors for several private and publicly listed biotech companies. He also founded the Peptide Drug Hunter Consortium, an international initiative focused on advancing peptide therapeutics and strengthening collaboration between academia, biotechnology, and industry. Most recently, he launched the Saint Albert the Great Institute for Science, Faith & Wisdom. 

Tomi holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Arizona and a B.Sc. in Chemistry from Minnesota State University Moorhead, where he is recognized as a Distinguished Alumni Scholar. 

Tomi advises NeuraClick on peptide drug discovery and the translational development of next-generation macrocyclic neuropeptide therapeutics.