Clinical pharmacologists at IU School of Medicine study medications in humans and their effective, safe, and economic use in patients.

Clinical Pharmacology Research

Clinical pharmacology deals with the study of medications in humans and their effective, safe, and economic use in patients. The Department of Medicine Division of Clinical Pharmacology at Indiana University School of Medicine has expertise in several areas of clinical pharmacology. The division is also home to the Indiana Institute for Personalized Medicine.

Alan Palkowitz, MD, oversees work with a member of his lab

Drug Development

The drug development group has extensive industry experience ranging from identifying therapeutic agents to FDA submission and approval. While their current focus is on the discovery and development of compounds with potential to treat or prevent Alzheimer’s disease, plans are underway to make their expertise available to researchers across the school of medicine.

Disease and Therapeutic Response Modeling Program

The Indiana CTSI Disease and Therapeutic Response Modeling Program home is in Clinical Pharmacology and consists of faculty from IU School of Medicine, Purdue University and experts from industry. They employ a wide range of mathematical models to predict drug disposition and effects across the continuum of preclinical and clinical drug development.

Pharmacogenomics

In collaboration with the Indiana Institute for Personalized Medicine, the pharmacogenomics group identifies, validates, and implements testing for genetic variants that are used in genomically-guided therapy. Additional work includes evaluation of payer reimbursement, reduction of adverse events, physician, pharmacist and patient education, and clinical decision support to alert prescribing clinicians of clinically actionable pharmacogenomic results.

Translational Research in Drug Response

The division conducts translational research to better understand the variability in drug response. The focus ranges from basic science to identify new targets and understand mechanisms that regulate drug metabolism to clinical trials that demonstrate the clinical utility pharmacogenomic biomarkers. This critical work provides a better understanding of clinical pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, drug bioavailability, and drug-drug interactions.

Training

Training activities include a nationally recognized postdoctoral training program funded by an NIH T32 training grant now in its 28^th year, a modeling and simulation fellowship program, and a doctoral minor in Therapeutic Drug Development anchored by two graduate courses (CLPH D501 and CLPH D502).

CLPH D501 and CLPH D502 are not offered during the 2023 - 2024 Academic Year. Please check back for more information or contact the Division for more details.

Drug Interactions Flockhart Table ™

The division maintains a CYP P450 drug-drug interaction website as a service to the clinical pharmacology community and as a tribute to our former division chief, David Flockhart, MD, PhD. This website is viewed thousands of times each day by users across the globe. We are currently in the process of developing a mobile application to facilitate the use of this site.