Pharmacokinetics / Pharmacodynamics

Dr. Venitz directs the Pharmacokinetic-Pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) Research Laboratory. His clinical studies are conducted at the NIH-supported General Clinical Research Center (GCRC). His major research interests include design, implementation and analysis of safety and toleration, PK and PD studies in the early clinical drug development with emphasis on the establishment of dose-response and pharmacological effect-plasma concentration relationships in healthy subjects and patients. Most of his ongoing research involves the

  • Development and validation of clinical pharmacological paradigms for CNS model compounds, e.g., ethanol, antidepressants, scopolamine, nicotine, as well as investigational compounds, e.g., NMDA-receptor antagonists, NK1-receptor antagonists, CRH-receptor antagonists and 5-HT1a receptor agonists
  • Preclinical (in-vitro and in-vivo) and early clinical development of novel synthetic allosteric hemoglobin modifiers (SAMs)
  • Application of artificial neural networks in QSAR and PK/PD analysis
  • Development of mathematical PK/PD models to predict the in-vitro activity of antimicrobials
  • Development of an ex-vivo model to assess the activity of pulmonary inflammatory mediators
  • Design, implementation and validation of PK/PD simulations for PD tolerance models.

Every year Dr. Venitz offers a Hands-On PK/PD Modeling Workshop.