This month we hear from the Young Scientist Committee and Young Scientist friends about how the COVID-19 situation has affected our professional lives. The result is a lovely snapshot of experiences of our members across countries and continents. The photo for the post represents one of the most challenging aspects of the situation, which has been working from home and caring for children in the context of institutional closures. A heart felt thank you to everyone for their contributions, and to all our members contributing in so many ways to this situation that has affected all of us globally.

« Laure and Juliette, working from home

This month’s interview is one we did at the end of last year with Young Scientist Florian Lemaitre. Florian was awarded the best YS oral prize for his presentation concerning long-term follow up after monitoring of intracellular tacrolimus concentrations and pharmacodynamic biomarkers in liver transplant patients (see the December 2019 Compass). Florian had several excellent submissions at the congress and the YS committee actually had trouble deciding which piece of work to award! Keep an eye on this very promising member.

Given the current global scenario, we will take a break from the current blog format of member interviews. Future blog pieces will address how members are dealing with the impact of COVID-19 in their work.

Florian Lemaitre
Assistant Professor, School of Medicine
Clinical Pharmacologist
Rennes University Hospital, France

This month it’s a real pleasure to hear from ‘retiring’ Young Scientist Committee chair, and good friend Markus Meyer. He has been a role model as an exceptional and accomplished scientist, from early on in his career, as well as a peer leader, having served on the TIAFT Young Scientist committee, among other scientific associations. Markus is currently a member of Council as one of our Directors of Education.

Markus Meyer
Chair, Experimental and Clinical Toxicology
Head, Clinical Toxicology Laboratory
Saarland University, Homburg, Germany

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