A warm welcome to all new members of our consortium!
With the previously introduced ESRs already fully engaged in their research projects, we are pleased to announce that five additional ESRs have begun their research. Let’s take a look at who they are and what they intend to investigate.
Gabriel Eksteen (ESR3) joined the AGePOP network in September 2021 based at KU Leuven in Belgium. He will investigate protein and micronutrient absorption in older adults who have undergone bariatric surgery. Irrespective of their obesity, these patients are prone to sarcopenia, and he will explore the role that nutrient absorption and low-grade inflammation play in this process. Gabriel will join Bayer for a secondment to integrate his findings into pharmacokinetic models for older adults.
Ekaterina Bocharova (ESR4) started her work at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in September 2021. Her project aims to characterize physicochemical properties of gastric and luminal fluids of healthy older people recruited at the Red Cross Hospital in Athens. During her secondment at Novartis, Switzerland, she will implement the results of her work to develop a novel in vitro media for drug performance evaluation.
Angela Elma Edwina (ESR7) started her PhD project at KU Leuven in September 2021. She aims to gain insight into the effect of the anticholinergic burden on gastrointestinal physiology, including motility, transit time, pH and pressure in geriatric patients using SmartPill™. Additionally, she will investigate the impact of gastrointestinal physiology on the disposition of direct oral factor Xa inhibitors in this population. Her project will result in the reference data to improve in vitro tools during her secondments at AbbVie.
Jonas Kusch (ESR9) joined the AGePOP consortium at the end of September 2021 and started working at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece. Within the framework of his research project, he investigates the impact of aging on the gastrointestinal epithelium to gain new conclusions regarding oral drug absorption in the elderly. To aim this, he will work in close collaboration with the red cross hospital of Athens. A secondment at Janssen, Belgium, will complement his research.
Cleo Demeester (ESR11) is based at Bayer AG in Leverkusen and joined the AGePOP consortium in October 2021. In the upcoming years, she will focus on developing a physiological-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model that will explain oral drug absorption in the elderly. This model will incorporate in vitro and in vivo data focusing on the impact of age and/or disease-related on drug absorption. During her secondment at KULeuven, she will obtain this in vitro data.
Browse through our ESRs’ profiles to learn more about their background and ambitions within AGePOP.