Thomas Dorlo

My research focuses on optimizing therapies for poverty-related and neglected tropical diseases, such as leishmaniasis, malaria, and mycetoma, through pharmacometric modelling and simulation (PK/PD & PBPK) - with a particular emphasis on children and pregnant women.

I am author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, mainly on clinical pharmacology, global health and tropical medicine. Currently I am the chair of the PAGE scientific organizing committee.

Over the past 15 years my main research interest has been clinical and translational pharmacology of (neglected) tropical diseases, in particular malaria, mycetoma and cutaneous, post-kala-azar dermal and visceral leishmaniasis, but also oncology and pediatric oncology, to optimize existing treatment regimens, novel combination therapies and new chemical entities (NCE), by translation of pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) findings into direct clinical applications. My work has always been aimed at advancing therapies in the area of global health for neglected and poor patient populations. I have been a consultant for Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), globally the single most important organization responsible for drug development in the area of neglected tropical diseases, where I am involved in the clinical pharmacology and pharmacometric analyses in their clinical trials on leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, mycetoma and more recently also cryptococcal meningitis. My research focuses on treatment optimization for vulnerable populations such as children and pregnant women and preclinical translational studies with the ultimate aim to improve treatment for special, neglected and vulnerable patient populations, reduce the need for animal pharmacokinetic experiments, and improve our understanding of host-pathogen-drug interactions both in human as well as in infection models.

My research has combined experimental and translational wet lab activities, involving the development and validation of bioanalytical assays to measure drugs and biomarkers (LC-MS/MS, qPCR, etc.), together with computational activities analysing (pre-)clinical PK and PD data applying state-of-the-art quantitative pharmacological and pharmacometric data analysis techniques, such as population PK/PD modelling & simulation and physiologically-based PK (PBPK) modelling. These modelling techniques are extremely powerful as they enable us to make predictions and extrapolate findings to different contexts, species, populations, dosing regimens, etc. I have been involved in the protocol development, implementation and execution of clinical trials in the fields of malaria, mycetoma, cryptococcal meningitis, cutaneous leishmaniasis, post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis and visceral leishmaniasis, in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America. I am currently collaborating with more than 40 academic/clinical partners from 24 countries on 4 continents, mainly in Africa (Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Mali, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, USA, UK, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands)

My research has been supported by the Dutch Research Council (Veni Fellowship), various EDCTP grants (European Commission), the Swedish Research Council, Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, the Dioraphte Foundation, and Uppsala University's InDevelops u-landsfond.

I am currently supervising 6 ongoing PhD students (4 main, 2 co-supervisor), while 9 PhD students (4 main, 5 co-supervisor) have already successfully defended their thesis under my supervision.