Division Integrated Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Great Department Pharmacotherapeutics Staff Professor Kazuko Nakagawa kazukon@gpo.kumamoto-u.ac.jp Associate professor Instructor Masaharu Sakurai msakurai@gpo.kumamoto-u.ac.jp Research theme [Full size image] Frequency distribution and probit plots of the log transformed metaboric ratio for CYP1A2 in 182 healthy Japanese student volunteers attending at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Kumamoto University. Our research projects can be summarized as follows: identification of hepatic enzymes related to the metabolism of clinically important drugs, particularly genetic-determined cytochrome P450, in relation to the therapeutic efficacy/side-effect(s) of drugs metabolized by these relevant enzymes. Because intra- and inter-ethnic differences in the drug metabolism have been known, we intend to extend our research project to a within-ethnic and between-ethnic comparison for the drug-metabolizing enzymes, and we have reported the genotype-phenotype relationships, gene-dose effects, and other covariates, by population phenotyping studies, population pharmacokinetic analyses, or in vitro assays using human livers. Through our recent research activities as mentioned above, we have suggested several important guidelines for international harmonization of a new drug development and individualized drug therapy as well.

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