This month we have another big interview, this time with Christophe Stove, a giant literally, but also in the field of micro-sampling and pharmacology/toxicology. This interview was also recorded at last years’ congress (pool side, where Christophe was peer reviewing a piece of research work. Apparently some three quarters of all micro-sampling papers go through Christophe’s hands as a peer reviewer; not a bad way to stay on top of the field!). The bit about his love of the word serendipity, and some longer sections, came more recently by email – all very good, so do read on. Christophe updates us on where his group is with their micro-sampling work, and we also hear about some more recent novel work, including activity-based bioassays.

Apologies for the delays with our blog interviews, shelved since last October with the civil unrest in Chile; these should continue as normal with a backlog of some great interviews to come in the following months.

Christophe Stove
Assistant professor, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Director, Laboratory of Toxicology
Ghent University, Belgium

I’ve been hassling Michael Neely for an interview probably since the beginning of our blog series in 2014. You will understand from the interview below (when he describes his work load) why it is so difficult to pin him down! So at the end of this years’ excellent congress, we managed to sit down and tape an interview, and we’re happy share the transcript below. I’m very grateful for the opportunity and for the very thoughtful responses: enjoy!

Michael Neely
Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases, Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles
Director, Laboratory of Applied Pharmacokinetics and Bioinformatics
Professor of Pediatrics, Keck School of Medicine
University of Southern California

This month we hear from Andrea Diniz, professor at the Pharmacy department of the State University of Maringa, Brazil. Andrea will present at the Congress in the Immunosuppressive Drugs Symposium on Monday morning, sharing work that looks at important interactions with anti-infectives in transplant patients.

With this post we close our series of interviews with Brazilian colleagues: a big thank you to Andrea, Marina Antunes, Rafael Linden and Rafael Linaro.

A reminder to Young Scientists: don’t miss the YS Night Out on Sunday, and the YS Symposium on Monday afternoon (the speakers are excellent, and include yours truly, Samiksha and Tomoyuki).

Looking forward to seeing you all very soon in Foz do Iguassu!

Andrea Diniz
Associate Professor
Pharmacy Department
State University of Maringa, BZ

The theme for this year’s congress is ‘TDM and Clinical Toxicology in a Globalized World’ and in addition to some great plenaries around the theme, there are dedicated parallel sessions such as ‘TDM in developing countries’ on Tuesday. Not only is this the first IATDMCT congress in Latin America, it is also the first time in the 29 year and 16 congress history that our host country is a developing country. I congratulate co-chair Rafael Linden for shining the spot-light on the challenges many countries face, but in this light we also see the many ways we all overcome these challenges. This month’s interview with Rafael gives a taste of what’s to come at the congress. See you in Brazil!

Rafael Linden
Professor of Toxicology and Pharmacology
Director, Laboratory of Analytical Toxicology
Feevale University, Novo Hamburgo, BZ