SEMINAR: Application of Translational Systems Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics to Cancer Therapy

Dr. Sihem Bihorel is an assistant professor at the Department of Pharmaceutics at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy since July 2015. Her laboratory is located on the Medical City campus in Orlando within the Center for Pharmacometrics and Systems Pharmacology, where she conducts experimental and computational research focusing on the following areas:

• Translational quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) and enhanced pharmacodynamics (ePD) of anti-cancer drugs. Bihorel integrates QSP models with systems PK/ePD models to advance drug discovery and development, leverage the understanding of drugs mechanisms of action (efficacy and toxicity), and identify promising combination therapies as well as novel targets and biomarkers.
• Development of novel anti-cancer drug delivery systems such as tri-functional lipid nanoparticles to enhance the delivery of drugs to solid tumors through targeted immunotherapy to overcome treatment resistance and toxicity in difficult-to-treat cancers.
• Use of cutting-edge experimental and computational techniques to rationally optimize sequence combination therapies of anti-cancer drugs.
• Her group generates molecular, cellular, and xenograft animal responses data to uniquely inform QSP models and bridge them with systems PK/ePD models, then translate mechanistic research insights into clinically relevant dosage regimens.

Bihorel graduated with a master’s and a Pharm.D. from the University of Paris-Descartes in France and a Ph.D. from the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at SUNY at Buffalo. She published several peer reviewed papers and has been awarded prestigious awards including, the PROSPER Excellence award from the College of Pharmacy at UF, the PhRMA Foundation starter grant award in transla