Pooja Manchandani, PhD
Pooja Manchandani, PhD, is currently a Senior Pharmacokineticist in the Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics (CPPM) division at AbbVie Inc. since 2017. Her work at AbbVie primarily focuses on providing clinical pharmacology support across multiple studies on advancing the development of newer treatment modalities addressing unmet medical needs in a niche area of women’s reproductive health. Prior to this, she briefly supported the early-stage clinical development of targeted oncology biologics, such as – antibody-drug conjugates and bispecific antibodies indicated for solid tumors.
Pooja received her MS in Industrial Pharmacy from India followed by, PhD from University of Houston in 2017, where she worked on revisiting the translational/clinical pharmacology of older antibiotics, presently used as last treatment resort for Gram-negative bacterial infections in the face of escalating antimicrobial resistance. The crux of her research was to gain insights on the translational and clinical PK/PD modeling of antibiotics and leverage that knowledge to make recommendations for dose/dosing regimen to ensure optimal efficacy in clinics. Thus far, Pooja has published 8 research articles in peer-reviewed journal, particularly in the area of antibacterial research spanning across – Population PK, clinical PK/PD modeling and dosing adjustment in patients with renal insufficiency as well as characterization of antibiotic-induced nephrotoxicity and assessment of renal injury biomarkers using animal model.
Pooja joined ISoP during her doctoral training and presented her graduate research entitled “Population-Based Pharmacokinetic Model for Intravenous Polymyxin B: A Quantitative Framework to Predict Pharmacokinetic Estimates in Patients with Gram-Negative Infections” in ACoP8 annual meeting. She believes, ACoP serves as an excellent platform where subject-matter experts in the field of pharmacometrics across various therapeutic areas collaborate to present their cutting-edge research as well as exchange their modeling and simulation-based experiences. In addition to ISoP, Pooja is actively involved in other organization viz, ACCP, and ASCPT. While still an early-career scientist, she served on the scientific programming committee for ACCP 2018 annual meeting. She also holds a leadership position within ASCPT, and currently serving as a vice-chair for ASCPT-Special Populations (SPO) community for year the 2019-2020. When not working, Pooja enjoys the outdoors as well as cooking, reading and spending time with family and friends.