Quantitative understanding of the pharmacokinetics of drugs to facilitate drug development and to realize the proper use of drugs in the clinics
“Biopharmaceutics”is the research field to understand the mechanisms that govern the drug movement inside the body after drugs are administered. The pharmacokinetics (PK) of drugs in the body is determined by multiple processes of so-called "ADME"; Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, and Excretion. In recent years, it has been elucidated that the ADME properties of drugs are dominated not only by their simple physicochemical properties but also by the functions of various PK-related molecules (metabolic enzymes, transporters) in a drug-selective manner. In addition, the functions of these molecules are modified by multiple intrinsic and extrinsic factors such as genetic polymorphisms, drug-drug interactions and pathophysiological conditions. Finally, various functional modifications of each function results in the inter-individual differences in the pharmacokinetics of drugs and subsequently their pharmacological/toxicological effects.
We are studying to clarify the factors controlling pharmacokinetics and their quantitative contributions, and to predict in vivo pharmacokinetics based on the results of in vitro experiments.
