
Robert E. Stratford, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Bio
Robert Stratford, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He is also Director of the Disease and Therapeutic Response Modeling and Simulation program for the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. Prior to joining the faculty in January 2018, Robert was an Associate Professor at the Duquesne University School of Pharmacy from June 2015 to December 2017, and an Assistant Professor from June 2010 to May 2015 in the College of Pharmacy at Xavier University of Louisiana, an Historical Black College and University. Prior to entering the academic world, Dr. Stratford worked for over 23 years at Eli Lilly and Company in both the Product Development and Drug Disposition organizations.
The overarching objective of Dr. Stratford’s research is to employ modeling approaches to describe and predict the disposition of drugs and their effects in humans. To achieve this objective, state-of-the-art modeling approaches are used to create in vitro cell-based models, as well as in vivo PK/PD and physiologically-based PK/PD models. The desire is to describe and integrate the complexities of drug action at the molecular, cell, tissue/organ, and organismal levels, the latter encompassing the individual to patient population continuum.
The goal of my research is to use pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) modeling approaches to describe the processes of drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (PK), and ensuing drug actions (PD) based on pre-clinical experimentation to confirm, and ultimately predict drug exposure and ensuing effects in humans. To support this goal, in vitro techniques are employed alongside in vivo non-clinical experiments. This integrated approach informs model design, and is subsequently used to 1) translate drug exposure and effects from animals to humans, and 2) develop hypotheses that broaden and/or deepen our understanding of the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic elements of a patient's response to pharmacotherapy.