Pharmacogenomics

Drug treatment is the cornerstone of today’s medicine. However, everyday a large number of patients receive medications that are, at an individual level, either ineffective or cause side effects. Pharmacogenomics aims to improve the outcomes of drug treatment by gaining a better understanding of the mechanisms that result in genetically based inter-individual variability in drug response. We aim to improve our ability to predict drug response and deliver personalized medicine to patient care.

To achieve our research ambitions we have formed a group of experts that covers the required fields within the area of clinical pharmacology, pharmacogenomics, human genetics, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, pharmacometrics and bio-informatics.

Genome science is continuously providing new tools that help to unravel the genetic origin of the variability in drug response. We apply these cutting-edge genomic technologies, and perform mechanistic and clinical studies.

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To achieve our research ambitions we have formed a group of experts that covers the required fields within the area of clinical pharmacology, pharmacogenomics, human genetics, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, pharmacometrics and bio-informatics.

Genome science is continuously providing new tools that help to unravel the genetic origin of the variability in drug response. We apply these cutting-edge genomic technologies, and perform mechanistic and clinical studies.

This combination of multi-disciplinary expertise and cutting-edge technologies allows the successful identification of genetic and non-genetic biomarkers for drug response while the clinical environment enables prompt translation to patient care.

Main themes

Our research is centred on main 2 themes:

  1. Discovery of pharmacogenomic biomarkers
  2. Implementation of pharmacogenomics in clinical practice.

Discovery studies for germline genomic biomarkers for drug response and toxicity are conducted for existing and novel drugs with a focus (but not only) on oncology. Our pharmacogenomic research includes candidate gene, genome-wide and sequencing approaches. Novel systems pharmacology approaches such as population pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, pharmacometrics are used to expand our understanding of the pharmacology of these drugs and to optimize treatment of the patient by personalizing the dose and drug selection. Indeed, we believe that successful implementation of personalized therapeutics could considerably decrease the incidence of adverse drug reactions.

Current themes

In addition, we have expanded our current research-themes with 3 highly innovative explorative research projects:

  1. Elucidating the mismatch between the drug metabolizer genotype and the capacity of an individual to metabolize drugs (phenoconversion)
  2. Computational modelling of growth and clone evolution in heterogeneous tumors
  3. Individualized drug repositioning in oncology

Projects

Themes for Innovation

Key Publications

Our team

  • Prof. Dr. Henk-Jan Guchelaar - hospital pharmacist, clinical pharmacologist, Professor in Clinical Pharmacy
  • Prof. Dr. Jesse Swen - hospital pharmacist, clinical pharmacologist, Professor in Clinical Pharmacy
  • Dr. Dirk Jan Moes - hospital pharmacist
  • Dr. Maarten Deenen - hospital pharmacist
  • Dr. Stefan Boehringer - statistician
  • Dr. Maaike van der Lee - postdoc
  • Anyue Yin - PhD student
  • Michel Koudijs - PhD student
  • Lisanne Manson - PhD student
  • Sylvia Klomp - PhD student
  • Qinglian Zhai - PhD student
  • Henok Habtemariam - PhD student
  • Iskander Shadid - PhD student
  • Claire Visser – PhD student
  • Amar Levens - pharmacist, PhD student
  • Jonathan Knikman – pharmacist, PhD student
  • Romy Mosch - PhD student
  • Sofia Peeters - PhD student
  • Doortje Boehm - PhD student
  • Yan Wang - PhD student