In the months leading up to our conference in Rome we are excited to be profiling Italian Scientists. This month we hear from Professor Antonio D'Avolio from Amedeo di Savoia Hospital, Turin, a centre known for their pioneering work in personalizing HIV therapy. More recently, this group was among the first to work with remdesivir and determining concentration in the critically ill COVID patient. We are very grateful to Professor D'Avolio for sharing his experiences. Read on!

Antonio D'Avolio
Professor of Pharmacology
Head of the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacogenetics
University of Turin, Amedeo di Savoia Hospital, Turin, Italy

Earlier this year in January, we shared a Compass piece on the blog ‘What is new about the exposome?’ by Nicolas Venisse. It was a fascinating topic that was new to me, and I was interested to hear more. In this month’s interview we hear from Nicolas about his work which is both applied and research oriented. As part of the HEDEX (Health Endocrine Disruptors Exposome) research group, Nicolas and colleagues investigate the health effects of exposure to environmental pollutants, primarily endocrine disruptors. This work is particularly interesting as the group applies various methods in the aim to achieve a complete picture of the exposure scenario, rather than effects of individual agents. A big thank you to Nicolas for both his contributions to the blog. Read on for more!

Nicolas Venisse
Toxicology and Pharmacokinetics Department
Clinical Investigation Centre
University Hospital, Poitiers, France

This month we have a real treat: we hear from Jan-Willem Alffenaar, currently Chair of Clinical Pharmacy between the University of Sydney and Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia. Jan-Willem has had an amazing career that spans the globe, starting in the Netherlands and currently in the exact opposite corner of the world. This was a really fun interview as we caught up by video conference (photo). He talked about some of the numerous innovative approaches to TDM that he’s been involved in, most recently micro volume saliva testing with a mobile UV-spectrophotometer. We also discussed some really novel ideas he’s been thinking about, like combining Fitbits with TDM (the guy’s an ideas-factory!) Thanks for sharing, JWA, and I hope those ideas keep coming!

Professor Jan-Willem Alffenaar
Chair of Clinical Pharmacy
School of Pharmacy, University of Sydney
Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia

In March we celebrate the achievements of women, so it’s lovely that we have an exceptional woman responding our interview this month. Sarah Wille is a Judicial Expert Forensic Toxicologist, a specialist area of toxicology we don’t often hear from in our interviews. Sarah has been involved with our Young Scientist committee and is also very active with our sister association, TIAFT. Another great interview this month, read on...

Sarah Wille
Judicial Expert Forensic Toxicologist
National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology
Brussels, Belgium