Edward LeCluyse is a Research Fellow at LifeNet Health LifeSciences with more than 35 years of experience spanning basic research and the development of translational in vitro models across industry, biotechnology and academia. His research has focused extensively on novel human hepatic model systems for studying drug metabolism, drug-induced liver injury, liver disease and other translational applications. He has authored more than 135 publications, book chapters and review articles and has delivered numerous lectures and workshops focused on liver biology and advanced in vitro hepatic models.
Caro Mertens, MSc, is a PhD student in Pharmaceutical Sciences at KU Leuven, Laboratory of Drug Delivery and Disposition, Belgium. Her research focuses on improving the prediction of drug-induced cholestasis using human-relevant hepatic in vitro models, bile acid profiling, and translational in vitro–in silico approaches. Her project is funded by a VLAIO Baekeland mandate and conducted in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, Department of Translational PK/PD and Investigative Toxicology. Caro holds a Master’s degree in Drug Development from KU Leuven. At the 2026 European ISSX Meeting, she received First Place in the Predoctoral Poster Awards for research using a mechanism-based hepatic tri-culture approach to improve prediction of drug-induced cholestasis.
Diane Ramsden is Executive Director and Head of DMPK at Korro Bio, where she leads DMPK strategy supporting the preclinical development of RNA-editing therapeutics. She brings more than 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience across diverse therapeutic modalities and areas. Her research focuses on applying in vitro and in vivo models to develop a mechanistic understanding of drug disposition, with extensive expertise in drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics and drug-drug interactions. She has authored more than 75 scientific publications and is an active contributor to industry initiatives advancing in vitro DDI prediction.
Grace Brown is a Senior Scientist at AbbVie within the Quantitative Translational and ADME Sciences (QTAS) department where she focuses on developing complex in vitro platforms and conducts mechanistic investigations with the purpose of evaluating enzyme induction, clearance, and elucidating metabolism pathways for drug candidates. Grace earned her PhD in biomedical engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago, under the mentorship of Dr. Salman Khetani. Her doctoral research centered on creating microscale liver and heart platforms, which have applications in drug development, disease modeling, and regenerative medicine.
Pieter Annaert is Full Professor in KU Leuven's Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences and Head of the Subdivision of Preclinical Pharmacokinetics. His research focuses on mechanistic and translational pharmacokinetics, including hepatic drug disposition, drug transporters, drug clearance, drug-drug interactions, perinatal pharmacology, in vitro hepatic models and physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling. His research group develops and applies experimental and computational approaches to improve the mechanistic understanding and prediction of drug disposition, with additional expertise in drug-induced cholestasis and translational drug development.