This month we publish a contribution to the March Compass concerning the impact of severe inflammation on drug concentrations and Therapeutic Drug Monitoring, specifically in the context of Voriconazole metabolism. Anette Veringa and Jan-Willem Alffenaar present their work, writing on behalf of the Anti-Infective Drug Committee. Their findings have implications for any drug metabolized by CYP450 iso-enzymes, and highlights the importance of knowledge of patient genotypes. Drugs with extensive protein binding exhibit a further layer of complexity in managing these patients.

Anette Veringa (far left)
University Medical Center, Groningen, Netherlands

Jan-Willem C. Alffenaar (left)
University Medical Center, Groningen, Netherlands

This month we hear from Manuela Neuman, who joins Maria Shipkova as co-editor of our E-News. Manuela shares about her extensive experience, and her special contribution to understanding and diagnosing drug reactions of various types. Among her contributions is the Lymphocyte Toxicity Assay, an innovative diagnostic test that helps predict the drugs patients will react to, allowing the safe selection of therapy.

Manuela Neuman

Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

CEO & CSO, In Vitro Drug Safety and Biotechnology,

Banting Institute, Toronto, CA

This month we hear from Kamisha Johnson-Davis, whom we welcome as the new chair of the Communications Committee. Kamisha is joined by Ofelia Noceti as vice-chair.

Best wishes to the committee who continue the wonderful work of Denise McKeown and Maria Shipkova.

Kamisha Johnson-Davis
Associate Professor (Clinical), Department of Pathology, University of Utah

Medical Director, Clinical Toxicology, ARUP Laboratories

Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

This month we hear from Jiangtao Tang from the West China Hospital, who shares about the challenges they are overcoming at his centre switching from immunoassay to mass spectrometry based assays and automation of sample pre-processing.  Jiangtao further shares his vision how metabolomics and proteomics, together with bioinformatics, will optimize patient care.

Jiangtao Tang
Department of Clinical Immunological Laboratory, West China Hospital

Sichuan University, Chengdu, CN