Carl Wagner was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and spent several summers and winters in Flagstaff during his childhood. His father, who has a doctorate in international relations, taught history, French, and economics in high school, and he endowed me with a love for reading, writing and classical music. Wagner's mother endowed him with a love of psychology and an abiding intuition that there is something more than what we feel and know. As a scientist, it is searching for the binding connections between distant and seemingly unrelated things that interests Wagner. Perhaps he chose chemistry as a focus, since he has always felt that matter has its own mind regardless of its form or animation.
Education
Ph.D. University of California-Irvine 2003
Bachelor's degree. Chemistry, Harvey Mudd College 1998
Research Interests
His current research is two-fold. In one project, he focuses on the design and synthesis of small molecules that target the retinoid-X-receptor, a central nuclear receptor for which synthetic agonists have proven to be effective in the treatment of various forms of human cancers. In the second project, Wagner works on the design and construction of triarylamines with potential applications as hole transport materials in photonic devices. Several undergraduate students actively participate in these research projects each semester.
Additionally, understanding how students learn chemistry and developing more effective methods for teaching organic chemistry, both in lecture and laboratory classes, are top priorities for Wagmer. To this end, he continues to develop and assess new teaching tools and laboratory experiments with the help of his colleagues. Since the West campus has recently acquired a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer, he will be developing a laboratory experiment that will introduce undergraduates to this vital instrument for organic chemists.
Publications
Carl E. Wagner, Pamela A. Marshall, Thomas M. Cahill, Zeynab Mohamed. Visually Following the Hydrogenation of Curcumin to Tetrahydrocurcumin in a Natural Product Experiment That Enhances Student Understanding of NMR Spectroscopy. Journal of Chemical Education (2013).
Peter W. Jurutka, Ichiro Kaneko, Joanna Yang, Jaskaran S. Bhogal, Johnathon C. Swierski, Christa R. Tabacaru, Luis A. Montano, Chanh C. Huynh, Rabia A. Jama, Ryan D. Mahelona, Joseph T. Sarnowski, Lisa M. Marcus, Alexis Quezada, Brittney Lemming, Maria A. Tedesco, Audra J. Fischer, Said A. Mohamed, Joseph W. Ziller, Ning Ma, Geoffrey M. Gray, Arjan van der Vaart, Pamela A. Marshall, Carl E. Wagner. Modeling, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of Potential Retinoid X Receptor (RXR) Selective Agonists: Novel Analogues of 4-{1-(3,5,5,8,8-Pentamethyl-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-2-naphthyl)ethynyl]benzoic Acid (Bexarotene) and (E)-3-(3-(1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-1,1,4,4,6-pentamethylnaphthalen-7-yl)-4-hydroxyphenyl)acrylic Acid (CD3254). Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (2013).
Shane Batie, Jamie H. Lee, Rabia A. Jama, Drew O. Browder, Luis A. Montano, Chanh C. Huynh, Lisa M. Marcus, Dorian G. Tsosie, Zeynab Mohammed, Vu Trang, Pamela A. Marshall, Peter W. Jurutka, Carl E. Wagner. Synthesis and biological evaluation of halogenated curcumin analogs as potential nuclear receptor selective agonists. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry (2013).
Julie K. Furmick,[a] Ichiro Kaneko,[a] Angela N. Walsh,[a] Joanna Yang,[a] Jaskaran S. Bhogal,[a] Geoffrey M. Gray, Juan C. Baso, Drew O. Browder, Jessica L. S. Prentice, Luis A. Montano, Chanh C. Huynh, Lisa M. Marcus, Dorian G. Tsosie, Jungeun S. Kwon, Alexis Quezada, Nicole M. Reyes, Brittney Lemming, Puneet Saini Arjan van der Vaart, Thomas L. Groy, Pamela A. Marshall, Peter W. Jurutka, and Carl E. Wagner. Modeling, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Potential Retinoid X Receptor-Selective Agonists: Novel Halogenated Analogues of 4-[1-(3,5,5,8,8-Pentamethyl- 5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-2-naphthyl)ethynyl]benzoic Acid (Bexarotene). ChemMedChem (2012).
Carl E. Wagner and Thomas L. Groy. 2-Fluoro-4-(methoxycarbonyl)benzoic acid. Acta Crystallographica Section E (2010).
Research Activity
Wagner,Carl Edward*, Jurutka,Peter W, Marshall,Pamela Ann. Development of Next Generation Therapeutics to Combat Alzheimers Dementia and Neurodegenerative Disorders (ASUF 30000770). ASU FDN(6/1/2015 - 5/31/2016).
Sandrin,Todd Ryan*, Wagner,Carl Edward. Collaborative Research: A Two-Year CollegeFour-Year University Parternership to Transform Chemistry and Biotechnology Curricula using FT-NMR. NSF-EHR-DUE(9/1/2011 - 8/31/2015).
Wagner,Carl Edward*, Jurutka,Peter W, Marshall,Pamela Ann. Modeling Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Potential RXR Selective Agents. HHS-NIH-NCI(1/1/2011 - 12/31/2015).
Wagner,Carl Edward*, Jurutka,Peter W. ApoE-directed therapeutics for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIV(12/31/2010 - 12/30/2013).
Carl E. Wagner, Peter W. Jurutka, Pamela A. Marshall, Arjan van der Vaart. Modeling, synthesis, and biological evaluation of potent retinoid-X-receptor agonists: Novel analogs of bexarotene, LGD100268, and CD3254. American Chemical Society 248th National Meeting, San Fransisco, CA (Aug 2014).
Carl E. Wagner, Pamela A. Marshall, Thomas M. Cahill. Visually following the hydrogenation of curcumin to tetrahydrocurcumin in a natural product experiment that also enhances student understanding of NMR spectroscopy. American Chemical Society 248th National Meeting, San Fransisco, CA (Aug 2014).
Carl E. Wagner. Searching for Novel Retinoid X Receptor Agonists. Midwestern University Seminar, Glendale AZ (Dec 2013).
Carl E Wagner, Peter W Jurutka, Arjan van der Vaart, Pamela A Marshall, Luis A Montano, Gary Landreth, Paige E Cramer. Carl E Wagner, Peter W Jurutka, Arjan van der Vaart, Pamela A Marshall, Luis A Montano, Gary Landreth, Paige E Cramer. American Chemical Society 243rd National Meeting (Mar 2012).
Carl E. Wagner, Thomas M. Cahill, Pamela A. Marshall. Extraction, purification and spectroscopic characterization of a mixture of capsaicinoids. American Chemical Society 241st National Meeting, Anaheim CA (Mar 2011).
Julie K. Furmick, Carl E. Wagner, Arjan van der Vaart, Syed L. Badshah, Pamela A. Marshall, Peter W. Jurutka. Modeling, synthesis and biological evaluation of potential retinoid-X-receptor (RXR) selective agonists for the treatments of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. The Endocrine Society (Jun 2010).
Julie K. Furmick, Carl E. Wagner, Arjan van der Vaart, Syed L. Badshah, Pamela A. Marshall, Peter W. Jurutka. Modeling, synthesis and biological evaluation of potential retinoid-X-receptor (RXR) selective agonists for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science 54th Annual Meeting (Apr 2010).
Carl E. Wagner, Peter W. Jurutka, Pamela A. Marshall, Mark E. Graeber, Erik Matro, Ivy T. Tran, Jamie N. Tedeschi, Reina O. Khamees, Jungeun Kwon, Shahram Moosavi, Julie K. Furmick, Belinda V. Miguel, Darci K. Grupe, Joshua S. Philp, Amina Danishyar, Justin W. Hart. Synthesis and biological evaluation of potential RXR selective agonists: Novel bexarotene analogs. American Chemical Society 237th National Meeting, Salt Lake City UT (Mar 2009).