The Center for Forecasting Drug Response (CFDR) is offered as a resource to researchers in the Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, the College of Pharmacy, the University of Minnesota and the community. There are three constituent divisions of the CFDR: Analytics, Pharmacometrics and Pharmacogenomics, each facilitated by an associated service.
Analytics
Clinical Pharmacology Analytical Services and Laboratory (CPAS), offers quantification services of drug concentrations in biological samples. The CLIA-certified lab and it's team of experts provide research and clinicians the resources to measure drug concentrations in blood and tissue samples of human and animal origin, including animals as patients and animals as research models. Director: James Fisher
Clinical Pharmacology Analytical Services and Laboratory
Pharmacometrics
Supports a suite of modeling and simulation software used in the analysis of pharmacometric data, and offers expertise in support of research initiated by outside investigators. Services available include design of pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) studies, PK/PD data analysis, development of mathematical models to describe relevant outcome measures, and clinical trial simulations.
Pharmacogenomics (PGx)
The PGx services will support collaborative research projects with the aim to identify genetic predictors of treatment response or toxicity. The services include guidance for pathway directed designing PGx studies for incorporation into various clinical trials. Director: Pamala Jacobson, PharmD Services include:
- Bioinformatics support to identify the key candidate genes within drug/disease pathways and the potential SNPs within these candidate genes.
- Genotyping for polymorphisms in drug pathway genes identified above.
- Genotype/phenotype association analysis
- Availability of HAPMAP cell lines and bioinformatic support to perform functional studies for understanding molecular mechanisms underlying the functional significance of the SNPs.
- Availability of HAPMAP: cell lines as a resource for functional studies.