Jaime Masferrer
Senior Research Fellow

Pfizer Global Research and Development, St. Louis, MO

"I like to come to work everyday and get my job done."

That job is as a Senior Research Fellow in Translational Pharmacology in the Liver and Metabolic Inflammation area at Pfizer Global Research and Development in St. Louis, a role in which Jaime Masferrer is charged with developing animal models for testing small molecules. He and his team are also working on developing a measure of early signs of drug efficacy, with a goal of being able to receive initial feedback on a compound's effectiveness in a matter of weeks or months as opposed to years.

Though he says he wasn't a stellar student growing up, Jaime did find that he was drawn to the hands-on aspects of his biochemistry labs. By the time he studied biochemistry in his native Chile and then pharmacology as a PhD candidate, he was an outstanding student at New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY-with eight published papers and a patent to show for it.

Jaime not only was one of the lead scientists that discovered Celebrex^TM (celecoxib), he has also pioneered research and published extensively for the possible use of COX-2 inhibitors for other diseases. For his achievements, Jaime received the Monsanto Queeny Award in 2000 and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) Discoverers Award in 2002.

While he says that if he weren't a pharmacologist, his propensity for being argumentative would lead to a career as a lawyer, Jaime does take it upon himself to mentor younger scientists. He also speaks to groups about the value of pharmaceutical science in his role as a Pfizer Science Ambassador.

Away from the lab, Jaime enjoys tennis, soccer and travel.