Thierry Buclin of CHUV/Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, expert in Evidence-based medicine
Giovanni De Micheli of EPFL/LSI, expert in Data analysis. Low power circuit and system design-new concepts for low standby power
Christian Enz of CSEM, expert in wireless sensor networks, very low-power analog IC design and semiconductor device modeling
Carlos-Andrés Pena-Reyes of HES-SO/HEIG-VD/REDS, expert in Embedded systems
Medical progress is increasingly improving the survival rate and life quality of patients affected by serious, life-threatening conditions, such as HIV infection, disseminated cancers or vital organ failure. These achievements rely significantly on new radical improvements of drug regimens and therapeutic protocols. Newly adopted treatments for such diseases require the daily administration of highly active therapies in the long-term.
The huge variability range in drugs response poses strong limits and severe problems in drug treatment definition. The largest part of variability in drug response (roughly 80%) resides in the pharmacokinetic phase, i.e. in dose-concentration relationships. This project aims at providing advanced technologies for assessing drug response by measuring drug concentrations and relevant biomarkers. In particular, it aims at providing drug treatment optimization based on processing of statistical and personal data and to enable seamless monitoring and delivery by an ultra-low power integrated system. Thus it is the purpose of the project to advance the state-of-the-art in personalized medicine by creating new enabling technologies for drug monitoring and delivery control rooted in the combination of sensing, in situ data processing, short-range wireless communication and drug release control mechanisms. These new technologies, in combination with currently available medical devices (e.g., micropumps, micro-needles, etc.) can significantly improve medical care and reduce the related costs.
The research goes beyond the state-of-the-art because of the introduction of new sensing and delivering technologies, ultra-low power sensor interface and wireless communication integrated in a miniaturized remote-powered hardware platform with energy-efficient data processing and robust control software. Targeted application domains will be HIV infection, cancer diseases and post-transplant therapies, which are currently addressed by the research in pharmacokinetics carried out by our medical partner at CHUV.
The overall benefit of this research is bettering medical practice by enabling personalized medicine while reducing health care costs. This goal is achieved by a concerted effort in various disciplines that will be embodied in demonstrators and validated in the field in the framework of the project. The state-of-the-art will be advanced by providing an electronic-control dimension to drug treatment, based on real-time sensing and on safe and optimal dosing policies. Expected scientific breakthroughs include new integrated sensors for specific drugs and biomarkers, new drug delivery mechanisms via electronically-controlled silicon membranes and a formal design methodology for provably correct and safe electronic drug delivery.
Successful efavirenz dose reduction guided by therapeutic drug monitoring A. Fayet Mello, T. Buclin, L.A. Decosterd, C. Delhumeau, J. di Iulio, A. Fleurent, M.P. Schneider, M. Cavassini, A. Telenti, B, Hirschel, A. Calmy. Antiviral Therapy (0, 2011)
Therapeutic drug monitoring of imatinib: Bayesian and alternative methods to predict trough levels V. Gotta, N. Widmer, M. Montemurro, S. Leyvraz, A. Haouala, L.A. Decosterd, C. Csajka, T. Buclin. Clinical Pharmacokinetics (0, 2011)
Who is in charge of assessing therapeutic drug monitoring? The case of imatinib T. Buclin, N. Widmer, J. Biollaz, L.A. Decosterd. Lancet Oncology (0, 2011)
Medical progress is increasingly improving the survival rate and life quality of patients affected by serious, life-threatening conditions, such as HIV infection, disseminated cancers or vital organ failure. These achievements rely significantly on new radical improvements of drug regimens and therapeutic protocols. Newly adopted treatments for such diseases require the daily administration of highly active therapies in the long-term.
