Some of the best talks at our congress in Prague last year were about the influence of gut microbiota on drug exposure. It feels recent work has brought us a lot closer to understand this, and how it may vary between drugs and individuals. Mycophenolate is a drug particularly affected and we are fortunate in this month’s blog to hear from Roland Lawson about his team’s work that has helped decipher the complexity behind the phenomenon, and also propose potential solutions to the problems it can cause for patients. This piece was originally published in December Compass, on behalf of the Immunosuppressive Drugs Committee.

Roland Lawson
University of Limoges
Limoges, France

This episode we travel around the world and hear from Paula Schaiquevich (Argentina) and Smita Pattanaik (India). These impressive women are well known IATDMCT members and are known for building successful TDM services from scratch. We hear excellent advice about where to start, how to grow, some typical challenges and how to face these. Read on!

This month we hear from Young Scientist, Guido Trezeguet. Guido is pursuing his PhD at the Paediatric Hospital Dr. Juan P Garrahan in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We met in person at the recent Prague congress, and I was very impressed with his work related to cell free DNA for the detection of acute graft rejection. Although the technique he is working on may enable wider clinical application due to reduced cost compared to earlier approaches, there are particular challenges in the paediatric setting. Looking forward to hearing developments arising from Guido’s work! Read on!

Guido Trezeguet
PhD candidate
Hospital de Pediatría Garrahan
Buenos Aires, Argentina