Prof. dr. J.J. (Jesse) Swen

I am Professor of Pharmacy, particularly translational pharmacogenetics. I am also a hospital pharmacist, clinical pharmacologist and section head of the Clinical Pharmaceutical Laboratory. In 2004 I obtained my pharmacy degree from the University of Utrecht. I combined my specialization as a hospital pharmacist with doctoral research. The title of my dissertation (2011) is "Translating Pharmacogenetis to Primary Care. After my training and PhD, I started as a researcher at the PharmaGKB group at Stanford University, after which I was asked to come back to LUMC as a hospital pharmacist & researcher. In 2022, I was appointed Professor of Clinical Pharmacy, specifically translational pharmacogenetics.

Clinical pharmacy focuses on optimizing drug treatment in patients. It aims to achieve optimal, safe, and effective drug treatment for patients in all health care settings (NWA Route Personalised medicine). Historically personalizing drug dosing was accomplished by measuring drug levels in the blood. However, the genomics revolution now also allows the use of genomic information to guide drug dosing. Indeed, pharmacogenetics is widely recognized as one of the first clinical applications of personalized medicine. It aims to optimize drug treatment by personalising the dose and drug selection based on a better understanding of the genetic variation that is causal for the variability in drug response, typically via alterations in a drug's pharmacokinetics (e.g. metabolism) or via modulation of a drug's pharmacodynamics (e.g. the drug target). After decades of discovery, the field of pharmacogenetics is moving towards clinical implementation, thereby providing a cornerstone for personalized medicine.