Elena Soto. PHOTO: Courtesy

Elena Soto is a pharmacist from the University of San José, Costa Rica. She completed the Master's Degree research and development +I of the School of Pharmacy and later joined the Pharmacokinetics section of the department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology of the University of Navarra where she completed the thesis doctoral thesis 'Semi-mechanistic modelling of neutropenia in oncology drug development' thanks to the of that she received for four years from the of Germany.mechanistic modelling of neutropenia in oncology drug development' thanks to the scholarship of research which she received for four years from the German business Boehringer-Ingelheim and which led her to combine her thesis with short stays at the German business and at the University of Uppsala (Sweden).

In June 2009 he received the award Lewis B. Sheiner, in St. Petersburg (Russia), during the annual meeting of the European Population Modeling group . Now, after defending his doctoral thesis , he is a member of the group of experts in Pharmacometrics of the business Pfizer, in Sanwdwich (UK).

- Question: What is your area of work in Pfizer Laboratories and how has your training of postgraduate program helped you in your performance?
- Soto: work in a department called Pharmacometrics which is within the area of 'Research and Development'. Here we work with the goal of integrating the knowledge of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, patient characteristics, physiology and evidence from the goal-analysis using quantitative techniques to facilitate decision making in the clinical development units. I specifically support the internal medicine unit. My training of postgraduate program has been fundamental to be able to perform my work, since during my training of postgraduate program I obtained the knowledge on quantitative techniques that I now have to apply. In addition, my thesis allowed me to learn more about how the pharmaceutical industry works, since my project was a partnership between the pharmaceutical industry (Boehringer Ingelheim) and the University.

- Why did you decide to do the postgraduate program in research and development+I of Medicines and, later, the doctoral thesis at the University of Navarra?
- I decided to do the Master in research and development+i of Medicines because it seemed to me that the program was quite complete and allowed you to learn more about the drug cycle. Later I decided to do the doctoral thesis because it would give me the opportunity to continue researching and learning more about the topic of research that I had already started as part of my project of Master's Degree with Dr. Fernández de Trocóniz.

- What practical applications could it have in the synthesis and delivery of new drugs?
- The degree scroll of my doctoral thesis is 'Semi-Mechanistic Modelling of Neutropenia in Oncology Drug Development' and deals with the application of mathematical models to the development of oncology drugs, focusing mainly on neutropenia; the main adverse effect of cytotoxic drugs. Among the practical applications of these initiatives is the integration of information available of a drug to design more appropriate clinical trials.

- What did receiving the European Lewis Sheiner award mean to you?
- The award Lewis Sheiner is an important distinction within the area of population analysis, and receiving it was a source of pride and a recognition of the effort made.