Dr Elizabeth De Lange | Head of Division of Pharmacology
Leiden Amsterdam Center for Drug Research LACDR

Dr. Elizabeth de Lange is Head of Translational Pharmacology of the Leiden Academic Center for Drug Research (LACDR). Her ultimate aim is to contribute to the scientific basis for the  prediction of human drug effects by translational pharmacokinetic -pharmacodynamic model development on the basis of preclinical data. Particular emphasis lies on investigations on drug distribution to targets in the Central Nervous System (CNS).
 
Her research has a comparative and integrative design to elucidate conditional influences on individual mechanisms, and includes the cycle of simulations – predictions - experimental testing - data modeling – simulations etc. Experiments typically involve monitoring techniques in (freely moving) chronically instrumented animals, including microdialysis. The microdialysis technique enables to monitor free drug concentrations in a selected tissue, which is an indispensable tool in characterizing rate and extent of passive and active transport parameters, and is most valuable to reveal active concentrations at the target site. Moreover, the microdialysis technique can be used to monitor biomarker kinetics. Other frequently used in vivo techniques are electro-encephalogram (EEG) recording and positron emission tomography (PET) scanning. Such techniques are applied in healthy animals, as well as in models of Parkinson’s disease and Epilepsy in which disease progression plays a role.