Faculty of Pharmacy

Nearly one million people die each year from poverty-related and ‘neglected’ tropical parasitic and fungal infections such as malaria, leishmaniasis and mycetoma. This is mainly due to a lack of safe and effective drugs. Vulnerable patient groups such as children and pregnant women are worst affected, but these groups are often excluded from clinical trials in the development of drugs. This means that there is a lack of good treatment options for those patients who actually need them the most.

My research aims to find optimal treatment regimens for these poverty-related diseases. For this, I use pharmacometric mathematical models that describe all the processes a drug goes through once it is inside the body, and the desirable and undesirable effects that the drug has on both the patient and the disease-causing microorganism. My research thus provides answers to important clinical questions such as: What dose should be used to treat young children or pregnant women? What biomarkers in the blood should we measure to confirm that a patient is cured? How can parasites in the skin of patients be treated most effectively? The new tools and biomarkers I am developing also make drug development for these neglected diseases more efficient and successful, so that new drugs and drug combinations are made available to patients faster.

My research is about developing better imaging and diagnostics for life-threatening and chronic diseases. Molecular or medical imaging are techniques that are used in healthcare and research to detect diseases at an early stage, without having to take tissue biopsies at all.

In my research, I use nuclear medicine techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET), which uses weakly radioactive substances called tracers for imaging cells or proteins in the body’s organs. PET is a highly sensitive technique, and therefore enables imaging of disease processes that were previously invisible.

We are developing new radioactive tracers that will enable earlier diagnosis, and to ensure that the right treatment can be given to the right patients. This means that diseases can be treated at an early stage when they can still be cured or alleviated. I am particularly interested in finding new radioactive tracers for the diagnosis of diseases that are expected to increase significantly in the future and as the population ages, such as diabetes and cancer.

With drugs, we can cure, alleviate and prevent disease. They help prolong life and improve quality of life, but can also cause problems. Side effects, interactions and poor handling of drugs are unfortunately common causes of morbidity.

My research focuses on studying how we can optimise and personalise how drugs are used, dosed and combined. Questions we address include how drug dosage is best set for newborns or critically ill patients whose organ functions are failing, or how treatments should be adapted to meet the needs and circumstances of older patients with comorbidities.

One of my areas of special interest is antibiotics. They are fundamental to advanced healthcare, but the development of antibiotic resistance poses a major and rapidly growing problem. In my research, I use mathematical modelling to understand the complex and dynamic interplay between bacteria, antibiotics and patients. The models are used to optimise treatments based on the individual’s antibiotic levels as well as the bacteria’s sensitivity to the antibiotic, and the risk of developing resistance to it. I also study the activation and efficacy of the immune system as well as new methods for rapidly identifying effective treatment options. This research has recently led to the clinical implementation of a team-based method for model-based precision dosing.