Impact of Complex Cell Models in DMPK – Where Are We Now and Where Are We Going?

Moderated by:

Katherine Fenner – UK DMPK Lab Head Metabolism at Pharmaron

Speakers

Yassen Abbas – Lead Scientist at CN Bio Innovations

Dr. Yassen Abbas is a bioengineer with 10 years’ experience working at the interface between the life sciences and engineering. He has developed innovative bioengineering models through experience in microfluidics, organ-on-a-chip technologies, and biomaterials in the biotech sector, space sector and early pregnancy research in academia. Dr. Abbas is currently a Lead Scientist at CN Bio developing organ-on-a-chip based ADME assays. 

Jing Lai, Ph.D. – Associate Director ADME at Pharmaron

Jing achieved her Doctorate degree from the China Agricultural University, major in veterinary pharmacology and toxicology in 2013. She has worked in the in vitro ADME department at Pharmaron for the last 9 years managing in vitro ADME screening projects and for the integrated services providing scientific ADME input and assay service to clients. Jing has broad experience in screening and delivery across numerous in vitro ADME assays including enzymes, transporters and permeability.  CYP induction, CYP inhibition, nuclear receptor activation, non-CYP enzyme phenotyping, transporter and Currently Jing is leading the Pharmaron in vitro ADMET innovation team where her team is responsible for assay harmonization and optimization, and setting-up of new assay platforms.  

Elnaz Gozalpour, Ph.D. – Associate Director DMPK, Drug Discovery Services Europe at Pharmaron

Elnaz has joined Pharmaron in June 2022 as an associate director at DMPK team of Drug Discovery. Prior to this, she was associate principal scientist in ADME/DMPK at AstraZeneca, Cambridge, U.K. In her previous position, she was supporting drug discovery projects at preclinical stages across Oncology, Neuroscience and Cardiovascular therapeutic areas.  Elnaz had joined AZ after finishing her PhD in Molecular Pharmacology at Radboud university medical centre of Nijmegen (The Netherlands). She completed her undergraduate (BSc and MSc) in Molecular Biology and Human Genetics, respectively in Tehran university, Iran. Elnaz has experience in ADME and DMPK in vitro sciences, drug transporters, and DDI. She is particularly interested in application of innovative in vitro models of kidney and BBB to investigate and improve in vitro-in vivo extrapolation (IVIVE), interspecies differences and PB-PK modeling. During her time at AstraZeneca (AZ), she was leading the establishment of renal model using 3D microfluidic systems at AZ and Loughborough university. Being DMPK lead in Neuroscience projects, she has had a strong impact on implementation of CNS strategy for distinct species. She is also interested to study polymorphisms of drug transporters and their association with ADME in different populations.  

Elnaz has been member of American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (APSS), Drug metabolism and discussion group (DMDG) and Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS). She has given a number of poster and podium presentations in the meetings and conferences of above-mentioned societies. She has also contributed to the recent white paper of International Transporters consortium (ITC) on drug transporters in 2022. 

Helen Rollison – Associate Principal Scientist, Metabolism at Pharmaron

Helen Rollison is currently Associate Principal Scientist in the UK In Vitro DMPK group of Pharmaron with responsibility for Drug-Drug Interaction and Development phase assays. Previously Helen worked at AstraZeneca where she worked extensively on enzyme and transporter drug-drug interactions through development of routine and bespoke in vitro assays, data interpretation and clinical study design. During this time, she led a data analysis sub-team for the IQ Pharma TALG/CPLG Transporters Working Group with a paper on the In Vitro Transporter Assessments currently in submission. Additionally, she has developed and applied advanced hepatic models such as spheroids and flow systems for the integrated assessment of hepatotoxicity and ADME queries with the inclusion of imaging, multi-omic and miRNA techniques in addition to traditional LCMS analyses. 

Kritika Sadh, Ph.D. – Senior Scientist, Metabolism at Pharmaron