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Molecular Pharmacokinetics Lab
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A lab that quantitatively elucidates how drugs move within the body.
AboutAbout the lab
Predicting and controlling how drugs move in the body
The Molecular Pharmacokinetics Lab studies how drugs are absorbed, distributed, and excreted in the body.
The lab investigates the factors that determine how drugs move, in particular the mechanisms by which drugs pass through cell membranes.
By incorporating into mathematical models the actions of transporters, which carry substances across membranes, and of drug-metabolizing enzymes, the lab aims to predict drug efficacy and side effects from the dose.
The lab also works on developing treatments for intractable pediatric liver diseases, and on research that uses computers to convert data on chemical compounds and pathology images into numerical form.
Key terms
- Transporter
- A protein in the cell membrane that carries substances such as drugs and nutrients into or out of the cell
- Blood-brain barrier
- A mechanism in the walls of the brain's blood vessels that keeps substances in the blood from entering the brain indiscriminately
- Drug-drug interaction
- A phenomenon in which, when multiple drugs are used together, they change each other's movement in the body or effects
NewsLab news
A treatment for PFIC, an intractable pediatric liver disease, received approval for an additional indication, based on research by Associate Professor Hayashi and colleagues
A master's student won the Student Poster Presentation Award at the Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Toxicology
A doctoral student won the Outstanding Research Presentation Award at the Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Toxicology
A student won the Best Presenter Award at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Japan
A research group including Assistant Professor Mizuno developed a liquid biopsy technology that contributes to the early detection of pancreatic cancer
ResearchResearch themes
A drug's efficacy depends heavily on how it moves within the body. The Molecular Pharmacokinetics Lab studies the factors that determine a drug's pharmacokinetics, in particular the mechanisms by which drugs pass through biological membranes, and develops methods to predict and control drug efficacy and safety.
*Illustrative imagePredicting blood drug concentrations
The lab develops methods to predict in humans how quickly drugs are eliminated in the liver, kidney, and gastrointestinal tract and how they distribute into tissues, combining mathematical models with in vitro experimental values obtained using human tissues and other materials.
*Illustrative imageHow drugs enter the brain
The lab investigates how transporters at the blood-brain barrier and the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier, the boundaries between the blood and the brain, pump drugs back out to the blood side, and builds methods to predict drug concentrations in the brain.
*Illustrative imagePredicting the effects of drug combinations
When multiple drugs are taken together, they can affect each other at the level of metabolic enzymes and transporters. The lab studies methods to quantitatively predict drug-drug interactions in the body from in vitro experimental results.
*Illustrative imageDeveloping treatments for pediatric intractable liver disease
For a pediatric intractable liver disease caused by a decrease of BSEP, a transporter that exports bile acids, at the cell membrane, the lab has found that existing drugs increase BSEP, and is advancing clinical trials and the development of more potent drugs.
MembersFaculty
The lab's members are faculty and students at the doctoral, master's, and undergraduate levels.As of 2026
- ProfessorHiroyuki KusuharaPublications ↗
- Associate ProfessorHisamitsu HayashiPublications ↗
- Assistant ProfessorTadahaya MizunoPublications ↗
- Project Assistant ProfessorYoshiki HashimotoPublications ↗
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Medicine Drug Pills on Plate” epSos .de / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Predicting blood drug concentrations: “Checking Blood Sample ( )” National Eye Institute / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- How drugs enter the brain: “Blood-brain barrier 02” Kuebi = Armin Kübelbeck, and for the brain: Patrick J. Lynch / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Predicting the effects of drug combinations: “CYP3A4” Minutemen 20:03, 11 August 2006 (UTC) / Public domain (cropped)
- Developing treatments for pediatric intractable liver disease: “Histology of liver tissue from a gallbladder resection” Mikael Häggström / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (臨床薬
物動態学教室): “UTokyo Hospital South” Tokyo538 / CC0 (cropped) - Related lab (薬品代謝化学教室): “Fluorescence rainbow” Maxim Bilovitskiy / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (機能病態学教室): “Histopathology of amyloid plaque in Alzheimer's disease” Mikael Häggström, M.D. / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (分子腫瘍薬学教室): “Acute Myeloid Leukemia (M2 type)” Makysm / CC0 (cropped)
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