Author: [AUTHOR] Published on 11/1/2019 12:00:00 AM

Patrick Hanafin, Graduate Research Assistant, University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Chapel Hill, NC

In 2014, Patrick received his bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of California at Davis.  After graduation he joined the Clinical Pharmacology, Modeling, and Simulation group at Amgen.  While there, he was first exposed to the fields of pharmacometrics and clinical pharmacology.  His passion for the field grew and he started in a doctoral program at the Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  In this program he is now exploring the application of systems-based modeling approaches to understanding and treating infectious diseases.

Patrick is grateful to have many supportive and passionate mentors in his training. He credits Dr. Murad Melhem with first sparking his interest in the pharmacometrics field. Dr. Melhem encouraged him to attend graduation school and develop in the field.  He also thanks Dr. Thuy Vu Craveiro with facilitating his creative thinking.  Dr. Craveiro challenged Patrick to grow as a pharmacometrician and clinical pharmacologist, and to pursue a doctoral degree. He is still working with mentor Dr. Gauri Rao who has challenged him to continually expand his knowledge on a daily basis.  She has encouraged Patrick to expose himself to clinical aspects of the field and think outside his traditional training. 

The intricacies of the field drew Patrick to the field of clinical pharmacology.  He is intrigued by the strategy that needs to be developed to elucidate the mysteries of each drug to successfully impact and benefit patients safely.”  Patrick is particularly interested in the use of modeling approaches to help explain and clarify some of these mysteries and quantify the impact of different systems in different patient populations, ultimately for better individualization of care.

Dr. Rao encouraged Patrick to join ASCPT and suggested that he submit an abstract to the ASCPT 2019 Annual Meeting.  This abstract was not only accepted for presentation but was also recognized as a top scoring trainee abstract for which he received the Presidential Trainee Award.  Looking back, Patrick is grateful to have been part of ASCPT 2019. He enjoyed being able to share his work and to gain new ideas from scientist and clinicians that share similar interests.  He believes his ASCPT membership will allow him to continue to expand his network and allow him to gain new knowledge and ideas to expand his own work.

Now, Patrick is using the models he has developed to design and implement in vitro Hollow Fiber studies to evaluate and optimize combination therapy for treatment in bacteremic patients.

Patrick has been a member of ASCPT since 2018.