This month we hear from Uwe Christians, program leader of the Biomarker Working Group of the Immunosuppressive Drugs Scientific Committee. It’s inspiring to hear about developments at iC42, an academic laboratory that provides a wide range of bioanalytical services, from clinical trials to patient solutions. It is also the first time aptamer based analytics have been raised in an interview, in this case for biomarker assays. Exciting things are happening in Colorado.

Uwe Christians
Director, iC42: Integrated Solutions in Clinical Research and Development
University of Colorado, Colorado, USA

This month’s interview comes from Barcelona, Spain. I had the pleasure to meet Olga Millán at last year’s congress, where she was among the early risers for the morning jog (not me, I was an admirer of the photos). Exhibiting similar speed, Olga has been the fastest responder to our interviews (less than 24h), greatly appreciated in a time of end of year commitments and pre-festivities. Olga shares about her long-term experience with a clinical lab and research group dedicated to discovery and implementation of biomarkers for tailoring immunosuppressant treatment.

Olga Millán
Researcher, Networked Biomedical Research Center (CIBERehd)
Pharmacology and Toxicology Laboratory (CDB)
Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, SP

This month I contacted Marieke Sturkenboom, Vice-Chair of the Pharmacometrics Committee, whom I didn’t realise works with Daan Touw, our first interviewee. It was wonderful to hear from Marieke’s perspective as a young scientist being welcomed into this world class laboratory and clinical service. It is also interesting to hear about how Marieke and her colleagues have been involved in the challenges that many modern hospitals go through, such as implementation of electronic patient records, upgrading to international laboratory standards and upgrading dose adaptation software.

Marieke Sturkenboom
Hospital Pharmacist and Clinical Pharmacologist
University Medical Centre, Groningen, NL

Many thanks to the Compass Editorial Team:

Paula Schaiquevich
Edgar Spencer
Franck Saint-Marcoux.

As we have come to expect, the Compass this month was full of great reports. In this issue we hear about scientific meetings in several very diverse locations, while the Anti-Infective Committee report on emerging developments in the Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of antiretrovirals and echonocandin class of antifungals.

Finally, there is a forum piece about the future of Precision Medicine (that sent me thinking down a rabbit hole into the past) and a report about the upcoming book, Individualized Drug Therapy, from two of our members, leaders in their field. Precision medicine, individualized therapy: is it precise to say they are the same?