Paolo Denti

Paolo is an associate professor in pharmacometrics and the head the Pharmacometrics Group.

He studied computer engineering at the University of Padua, Italy, where he obtained his Master’s degree in 2005. During his undergraduate studies, he became interested in the application of mathematical and engineering techniques to the quantification of biological systems, which lead him to pursue a PhD in bioengineering at the same institution. He was awarded his PhD in 2009, working under the supervision of Prof Alessandra Bertoldo, Claudio Cobelli, and Paolo Vicini (University of Washington, Seattle, WA) on the application of nonlinear mixed-effects modelling to glucose-insulin metabolism.

In 2009, he joined the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Cape Town, where he contributed to the creation of Pharmacometrics Group. The group applies mathematical modelling to the optimisation of dosing regimens for the treatment of HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, with a focus on neglected populations (such as pregnancy or paediatrics) and the characterisation of drug-drug interactions and the effect of pharmacogenetic factors.

He lectures pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics within the Honours and MPhil programs in pharmacology offered by the Division of Clinical Pharmacology. Since 2012, he leads a training initiative aimed at developing pharmacometrics skills in Africa. The training program started within a collaboration with Novartis Pharma and is now under the umbrella of Pharmacometrics Africa, an initiative supported, amongst others, by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. pharmacometrics-africa

He authored more than 70 peer-reviewed publications in international journals with various applications of mathematical modelling to the disease areas of diabetes, HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria. He is a member of the editorial board for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics: Pharmacometrics and Systems Pharmacology and the Journal of Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics.

Research interests:

Pharmacometric modelling to improve the treatment of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.

Focus on dose optimisation in neglected populations (paediatrics and pregnancy), drug-drug interactions and pharmacogenomics.