PHD ON POPULATION PK MODELING OF TACROLIMUS AND COMPUTER ASSISTED DOSE FINDING INCLUDING SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING (PROOF OF CONCEPT)

Tacrolimus is the mainstay of immunosuppressant therapy after solid organ transplantation. The goal of this project is to develop an intuitive dose finding software of tacrolimus computing future doses from the known dosing regimen and individual plasma concentrations of tacrolimus. More specifically, this project includes: 1. The systematic collection of data in databases: treatment regimen modalities, serum concentrations, covariates and therapeutic response, in collaboration with different divisions of UZ Leuven. 2. The description of precision of target attainment and patterns of response of physicians to deviations from the target using currently employed heuristic dosing regimens. 3. The development and validation of population pharmacokinetic (popPK) models based on the data in the databases. 4. The development and validation of dosing algorithms based on “direct dose finding” and simulation models in order to support clinical decision-making. 5. The development and validation of an intuitive and robust dosing software for the prediction of the PK profile of individual patients and concurrent adaption of the current dosing regimen to achieve target attainment.