Dr. Rommel Tirona, BSc, PhD
Children’s Health Research Institute
Scientist, Children’s Optimal Therapeutics Program
Lawson Health Research Institute
Scientist, Children’s Health Research Institute
University of Western Ontario
Assistant Professor, Departments of Medicine and Physiology & Pharmacology
Contact Information
Tel: (519) 685-8500 Ext. 32102
E-mail: Rommel.tirona@schulich.uwo.ca
Brief Biography
Dr. Rommel Tirona received his Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from University of Toronto in 1991. He completed a residency in hospital pharmacy at the Ottawa Civic Hospital and then pursued his PhD in Pharmaceutical Science at the University of Toronto. In 1995, he was a research exchange student in the Division of Toxicology at Leiden-Amsterdam Center for Drug Research in Leiden, The Netherlands. Following completion of graduate studies in 2000, he was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville Tennessee. From 2002 to 2004, he was a Research Scientist at Amgen Inc., Thousand Oaks, California.
Dr. Tirona joined the Schulich School of Medicine at The University of Western Ontario in 2006, as an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Physiology & Pharmacology. He was the 2008 recipient of the Ken Piafsky Young Investigators Award, from the Canadian Society for Clinical Pharmacology and is a current member of the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics and the Canadian Society for Pharmacology and Therapeutics.
Research Interests
• Dr. Tirona’s research focuses on drug transport, metabolism and pharmacokinetics as determinants of drug response and toxicity.
Research Activities
Studies are performed to characterize and understand the factors that govern interindividual differences in drug pharmacokinetics. The laboratory is especially interested in transport proteins and their impact on tissue drug distribution and elimination. Moreover, the role of nuclear receptors in determining the expression of drug metabolizing enzymes and transporters is also an area of interest. A variety of biochemical, molecular biological and genetic methods are employed in cellular and animal models together with studies in humans. Currently, the laboratory is investigating the role of drug transporters in the skeletal muscle toxicity of cholesterol-lowering drugs (statins). In addition, we are studying the interplay between transporters and metabolizing enzymes with respect to quantitative in vitro to in vivo prediction of drug pharmacokinetics.
Awards and Recognition
Ken Piafsky Young Investigators Award - Awarded by Canadian Society for Clinical Pharmacology
Funding in support of "Role of Drug Transporters in Statin-Induced Myopathy" - Awarded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research
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