The long-term central goal of my career is to improve the outcomes of drug treatment by conducting first class biomedical research. To accomplish this goal I am building a research program that aims to improve drug treatment by discovery of novel pharmacogenetic biomarkers and subsequent translation to clinical practice, thereby providing a cornerstone for precision medicine. This work is seamlessly integrated with my work as chair of the pharmacy laboratory. I’m one of the primary investigators of the “Ubiquitous Pharmacogenomics” project (www.upgx.eu). I have published multiple papers on the identification of barriers for clinical implementation of pharmacogenomics and the development of approaches to overcome them. In addition I (co)authored pharmacogenomic guidelines and am an active member of the Dutch Pharmacogenetics Working Group and the Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium.
Recently I have initiated a novel fundamental research line focusing on elucidating the frequently observed mismatch between the genotype and the capacity of an individual to metabolize drugs (phenotype). This phenomenon is called phenoconversion and presents a significant problem for the clinical implementation of pharmacogenetics. Underlying mechanisms involve both drug-drug interactions as well as disease state.