Author: [AUTHOR] Published on 9/1/2020 12:00:00 AM

Xiaomeng Xu, MS, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia

Xiaomeng is a PhD candidate at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). In the first year of her graduate program, she was introduced to the VCU alumni after the ASCPT Annual Meeting. She first learned about ASCPT from the senior graduate students in her laboratory. Her advisor, Dr. Jurgen Venitz, encouraged and supported her attendance at the ASCPT Annual Meeting. She appreciates the opportunity that ASCPT provides for new trainees to know more seniors in their fields and the career advice they provide.

In 2018, Xiaomeng joined ASCPT and has enjoyed learning from various member benefits ever since. She has participated in online webinars and reading Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics (CPT). She also appreciates the networking opportunities that ASCPT provides, the Annual Meeting being one example. She recognizes that ASCPT is well‐known in the clinical pharmacology and translational science area. The Society gathers well‐known clinical pharmacologists and translational scientists and keeps members up‐to‐date in these areas.

Discovery of anti‐sticking agents and focusing on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) profiling and modeling of a class of novel synthetic allosteric effectors of hemoglobin (AEH) are Xiaomeng’s current research interests. She explains that sickle cell disease (SCD) is a genetic blood disorder that affects approximately 300,000 babies per year worldwide. Most recently, the US Food and Drug Administration approved Oxbryta for SCD, which proves that the mechanism of action of AEH has clinical benefits. This, as well as a VCU‐lead compound that became of one of the first tested AEH’s in clinical trials, has informed her group’s current AEH design and discovery process by early tiered, where in vitro screening of our compounds not only for Hb binding kinetics, RBC/plasma protein binding, as well as RBC and hepatic metabolism, but also gastrointestinal (GI) solubility/permeability, followed by in vivo PK/bioavailability studies in rodents. Using quantitative methods such as in‐vitro‐in‐vivo extrapolation, allometric scaling to translate the preclinical PK/PD information into predictions of likely effective human dosing regimens and optimize selection of compounds for further drug development.

As for the next generation of clinical pharmacologists and translational scientists, Xiaomeng encourages them to follow her example. She suggests that they “join ASCPT as early as possible and actively participate in various activities such as volunteering and the Annual Meeting.” <br<>
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