Author: [AUTHOR] Published on 8/1/2021 12:00:00 AM
Karen Rowland Yeo, PhD, Senior Vice President, Certara, Sheffield, United Kingdom
What Professional Accomplishments Are You Most Proud Of?
Physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling has come a long way in the past few decades. One of those things I am most proud of in my professional career is helping to raise awareness of the utility of PBPK modeling in drug development and establish best practice approaches to support the use of PBPK models in regulatory submissions.
Since joining Simcyp Ltd. (a University of Sheffield spin-out company) in 2002, I have led and worked closely with a team of great scientists from multiple disciplines to support the development and application of the Simcyp Stimulator, which along with other commercial platforms, is now widely applied in the pharmaceutical industry. In 2010, we received the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise in the innovation category. One of my proudest moments (as well as the most intimidating!), was going to Buckingham Palace to accept the award on behalf of the company as well as meet the Queen herself and the Duke of Edinburgh.
Nowadays, as part of Certara, Ltd., I am proud of helping advance the use of model-informed drug development approaches, including PBPK modeling, to support Global Health Initiatives alongside non-profit organizations, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Medicines for Malaria Ventures. ASCPT provides the perfect forum for collaborations between scientists and clinicians engaged in Global Health efforts.
Do You Have a Favorite Tip or Trick for Clinical Practice or Research That You Want to Share With Fellow Members?
This might sound a bit weird, but I think that training your mind with Sodoku and chess can help with research. I suppose I am looking at this from a modeling and simulation perspective, where in chess, you make decisions based on the pieces (of information) you have in front of you and have to make them work together to get the end-result, but also anticipate unexpected scenarios. For Sodoku, you are still looking ahead, but you are started with minimal information and need to put the numbers/components together that are going to work within the individual blocks and ultimately together. In both Sodoku and chess, at each stage, there are choices and decisions to be made that have different consequences.
I have always had a fascination with puzzles and challenging strategic games, where you have to think on your feet and make quick or informed decisions. Even when I was a young kid growing up, I wasn’t happy just putting a jigsaw puzzle together, I had to make it more challenging by doing it upside down.
When You Aren’t Working, How Do You Spend Your Free Time?
I grew up in some pretty remote areas in central and southern Africa. I love the outdoors—the “bush” as we would call it! When possible, I travel to Zimbabwe and head to “the bush” to observe the wild animals, especially wild dogs in their natural habitats. We stay in a low-key basic camp on the banks of the Zambezi—there are no fences so we get to interact with animals but at a respectful distance. I often practice yoga while having a herd of elephants munching away in the background. My partner is an avid wildlife photographer and is often seen ducking and diving around camp trying to take interactive photographs such as these.
By now you’ve probably gathered that I like being outdoors. I live in the Lake District National Park in the UK. We have lots of mountains and lakes. When I’m not out hiking, I’m either in the water swimming, or under it diving, whatever the weather!
What Was Your Childhood Dream Job?
I wanted to be a detective. I watched every murder/mystery show going when I was growing up. In fact, I still do. I love people and observing their behavior and the dynamics between them. I also love trying to put all the pieces together to come up with the most (im)plausible explanation of “whodunit” and the motive. Do you see the pattern here?
What’s One Thing People Would Be Surprised to Know About You?
Most of my colleagues know me as a scientist, but at school, I adored arts, languages, literature, and history. I couldn’t get enough of them! I was much better at these subjects than I was in the sciences. In order to take up a funded University place in South Africa, I had to study the latter. However, given a choice, I would probably have followed a career in history.
Dr. Rowland Yeo has been a member of ASCPT since 2006.
