Dissertation • Laurynas Mockeliunas
- Date
- 22 January 2026, 09:15–12:30
- Location
- Uppsala Biomedical Centre, A1:111a
- Type
- Thesis defence
- Lecturer
- Laurynas Mockeliunas, PhD Student
- Thesis author
- undefined
- Publication
- https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-571889
- Organiser
- Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences
- Contact person
- Laurynas Mockeliunas
Laurynas Mockeliunas, PhD student at the Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, defends his doctoral thesis Pharmacometric efficacy and safety evaluations within the fields of pulmonary tuberculosis and COVID-19. The work provides guidance for the development of new drugs and treatments against tuberculosis and for improved preparedness for global health crises.
Tuberculosis (TB) and COVID-19 are infectious diseases that pose major challenges to research and healthcare. While TB requires long and complex treatment regimens – further complicated by accelerating antibiotic resistance – the COVID-19 pandemic created an urgent need for effective methods to evaluate vaccines and therapeutic interventions. As rapid progress is essential, mathematical and pharmacometric modelling constitute important tools in both fields.
In his research, Laurynas Mockeliunas has applied pharmacometric methods to develop a standardized approach for analysing early treatment response in TB studies, to create a tool that enables individualized dosing of the TB drug linezolid, and to establish an efficient and reproducible analysis workflow for a clinical study investigating BCG vaccination against COVID-19 in healthcare workers.
Mockeliunas' standardized analysis workflow improved interpretation and planning of early TB studies, and helped demonstrate that adding rifampicin did not improve short-term efficacy in studies of rifampicin-resistant TB. For linezolid, pharmacometric modelling enabled safe and effective individualized dosing from treatment initiation and clarified exposure levels associated with serious adverse events. In the BCG study, Mockeliunas identified risk factors for COVID-19 and other respiratory infections among healthcare workers.
Overall, Mockeliunas' results provide improved decision support for early TB drug development, safer treatment of multidrug-resistant TB, and faster analysis of large clinical studies during future infectious disease outbreaks – contributing to more effective treatments and better preparedness for future global health crises.
Researcher bio
Laurynas Mockeliunas obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Genetics from Vilnius University in 2018. He received his Master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Modelling from Uppsala University in 2020 and the following year was recruited as a PhD student to Ulrika Simonsson’s research group in Pharmacokinetics and Quantitative Pharmacology.