Min Dong, PhD

I am a researcher in the field of clinical pharmacology, and I came to Cincinnati Children’s in 2011. My areas of interest include pediatric pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) modeling and simulation, individualized Bayesian dose optimization and clinical trial design.

My research goals are to use novel quantitative approaches to facilitate drug development and dose optimization for drugs such as antibiotics, immunosuppressants and cancer drugs in pediatric patients.

I have worked with my colleagues at Cincinnati Children’s, Drs. Patrick McGann and Russell Ware in the Division of Hematology and Dr. Alexander Vinks in the Division of Translational and Clinical Pharmacology, to develop a PK-guided Bayesian adaptive control algorithm to individualize the hydroxyurea dose in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD).

We recently reported the results of a prospective clinical trial (TREAT study: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02286154) indicating that this PK-guided dosing approach is able to predict a safe starting dose of hydroxyurea. This can significantly reduce the time interval for patients to reach their personal maximum tolerated dose (MTD).

Our collaboration on sickle cell disease has also thrived with other research efforts. These include international studies performed in the Caribbean (EXTEND: NCT02556099) and in sub-Saharan Africa (REACH: NCT01966731 and NOHARM: NCT01976416), as well as studying hydroxyurea exposure in lactation (HELPS study).