Pharmaceutical Research Shared Resource

Overview

Leadership

Ashley Morris, PharmD
919-668-1018
morri054@mc.duke.edu
 

Francis Ali-Osman, DSc
919-684-8756
Francis.aliosman@duke.edu

Location: Duke South, 5320 Orange Zone

The Pharmaceutical Research Shared Resource, consisting of an Investigational Chemotherapy Service and a Cancer Clinical Pharmacology Laboratory, provides a broad range of services to support the conduct of clinical hematology/oncology research.  The Investigational Chemotherapy Service (ICS) is available to all Duke Cancer Center investigators for the purpose of maintaining drug accountability records and investigational drug inventories according to FDA and CTEP guidelines.  In addition, this resource provides design consultation, professional staff education, and implementation services for clinical research studies.  The primary focus of the Clinical Pharmacology Lab (CPL) is to investigate the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of anticancer drugs and recombinant proteins used in the experimental therapy of cancer.  This resource is also available for analysis of endogenous cytokine concentrations during investigational therapy.  One of the major goals of the laboratory is to identify predictors of response and toxicity and implement methods to reduce inter-patient variability and drug exposure.  The lab provides both consultative and analytic services regarding clinical pharmacokinetic studies of anticancer compounds and recombinant proteins.  These include: aid with trial design, optimal sampling techniques, sample handling and stability, quantitative measurement of drug and metabolite concentrations (via HPLC, atomic absorption spectrophotometry, gas chromatography/mass spectrophotometry, or ELISA), calculation of individual and population pharmacokinetic parameters and pharmacometric evaluation via sophisticated computer modeling programs.  This resource has maintained a high level of usage  by Duke Cancer Center investigators including those from the Experimental Therapeutics Program, Breast and Ovarian Oncology, Hematopoietic Transplantation and Hematologic Malignancies, Neuro-Oncology, Radiation, and Cancer Biology Programs.