Author: [AUTHOR] Published on 4/1/2021 12:00:00 AM

S.Y. Amy Cheung, PhD, Senior Director, Certara, Dunmow, United Kingdom

What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
Being the Project manager of the AstraZeneca Pediatric working group and Chair of the IQ CPLG Pediatric working group have been meaningful accomplishments for me. Both have allowed me to contribute to developing innovative clinical pharmacology and model‐informed drug discovery and development (MIDD) strategies to accelerate better medicine in children. These roles also allowed me to participate in a number of key white papers on extrapolation, ontogeny, and how the structure of a pediatric project group impacts pediatric drug development. I am also proud of being a member of the core group of the EFPIA Model Informed Drug Discovery and Development group and of the white paper we published. I am also proud that I am currently participating in vaccine development for COVID in my company to fight the pandemic.

Who has inspired you in your career?
I am fortunate that I have learned from a number of great people, starting with my PhD on structural identifiability of complex models and PBPK modeling. This formed a great foundation for my beliefs and career. Professors Leon Aarons and Malcolm Rowland were my academic supervisors; they inspired me with the impact of mathematical modeling in drug development. Also, Professors Amin Rostami, France Mentré, and Jean‐Louis Steimer were also involved during my PhD studies with various case studies that opened my eyes to the real‐world application of pharmacometrics to provide solutions for different disease areas, e.g., cough, infection, and cardiovascular disease.

Do you have a favorite tip or trick for clinical practice or research that you want to share with fellow members?
I believe that collaboration and ensuring the people with the best skills are involved is always important.

When you aren’t working, how do you spend your free time?
I enjoy reading books, watching films, painting, playing musical instruments, and planning interesting travel to different places.

How do you keep focused and motivated?
I think the ability to stay focused and motivated are essential to ensure having a good life and work balance. I then aim to set very clear achievable goals in realistic time frames, e.g., 6 months, 1 year, and 5 years. I am lucky enough to be able to identify the areas of research interest and get excited with the latest trends and progress in these areas. This motivates me to move forward and be passionate about them, e.g., clinical development for oncology, pediatric, and vaccines, structural identifiability, and MIDD.

Dr. Cheung has been a member of ASCPT since 2020.