Welcome to the Pharmacokinetics Research Group

Pharmacokinetics is the quantitative assessment of what the body does to a chemical following exposure. The fate of a chemical in a living organism is a function of its physical-chemical properties as well as the anatomy and physiology of the organism. Four main concepts form the basis for describing the rate and extent of exposure. These are Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and Excretion, or ADME for short.

Our research is focused on building virtual organisms to study the pharmacokinetics of drugs and environmental contaminants. Physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models provide a mechanistic means of understanding how changes in anatomy and physiology can affect the ADME of a chemical. PBPK models are predictive and can be used to scale pharmacokinetics across species (e.g., rat to human) and within a species (e.g., healthy adult humans to children or patients) with an eye towards determining the right dose (in medicine) or determining differential risks associated with contaminant exposure (in human health risk assessment).

This research lab is also the population pharmacokinetic modelling lead within the Web-Accessible Population Pharmacokinetics Service – Hemophilia (WAPPS-Hemo.org) program. This program, initiated out of McMaster University by Dr. Alfonso Iorio, provides hemophilia treaters with a platform that, when given patient covariates and factor concentrate plasma levels, uses previously developed brand-specific population PK model and Bayesian forecasting to generate estimates of patient PK that can be used to optimize dosing in the individual. We have 500+ clinical sites using the WAPPS-Hemo service from 40+ countries. 

This website will provide you with further details of our current and future pharmacokinetic research. Peruse the list of publications and courses that I teach and email me if you have questions about the research or the website.

Students interested in graduate studies at either the M.Sc. or Ph.D. level with interests or experience in the following areas:

• PBPK modeling
• Pediatric PBPK modeling
• PK/PD modeling

 can email me directly:  aedginto@uwaterloo.ca

I am particularly interested in students who possess strong mathematical and/or statistical skills.