Adding Quantitative Systems Pharmacology to the Pharmaceutical Sciences Curriculum

摘要

Optimizing drug dosages, evaluating side effects, improving clinical trials, and reducing costs and time to market — these are just a few of the benefits of model-informed drug development. Due to these advantages, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is encouraging pharmaceutical companies to include simulation in their product development cycles. There is just one problem: Companies often have a hard time finding candidates with strong experience in simulation, as mathematical modeling is minimal in most pharmaceutical sciences programs. To address this issue, the Institute of Quantitative Systems Pharmacology and the College of Pharmacy at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center partnered in 2014 to develop an innovative curriculum. Within this program, Research Assistant Professor Roberto A. Abbiati designed a PhD-level course on simulation for pharmaceutical sciences students at the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy. The class gives an overview of numerical analysis and the modeling workflow in the COMSOL Multiphasics® software. Students learn how to apply modeling to pharmacokinetics, the branch of pharmacology that studies the effect of the human body on the administered drugs. Specifically, Abbiati applies modeling to streamline the quantification of drug concentration levels in the human body and the intended target sites over time — an important concern when developing potentially life-saving treatments.