Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) have now become essential tools for determining the appropriate use of currently available anti-infective agents as well as for accelerating the development of new drugs.  While this is now more and more recognized by Academia, Industry and Regulatory Agencies (see the ISAP / FDA and ISAP / EMEA workshops held in 1999, there is presently a lack of training into these disciplines.  Accordingly, ISAP has endeavoured to launch educational activities in this context.  The aim is to train people professionally involved in development or in the use of antiinfective drugs in the basic and applied aspects of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, showing how these sciences have emerged over the last 10 years and how their influence has grown.

• Objectives: Participants were expected to gain insight in pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic concepts of antimicrobial therapy. This includes the use and application of  animal models and in vitro pharmacokinetic models. Attention will be given to pharmacokinetic issues (protein binding, the value of tissue concentrations), pharmacodynamic issues (the use of pharmacodynamic parameters to describe and predict effect, Sub-MIC effects, post-antibiotic effects, differences between in vitro and in vivo) and the use of pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic modelling (the E-max model and other models). To illustrate theory, examples were given how to use the above concepts in clinical practice and drug discovery.
• Intended audience: physicians, clinical microbiologists, pharmacologists, pharmacists and anybody else interested.
• Level: basic to intermediate
• Practical organization and sponsoring: the workshop was informal and each part consisted of a 20 minutes talk followed by a 10 minutes "Questions & Answers" period.  Every participant was encouraged to ask questions (there are no stupid questions !!). The workshop was a full-day program and an official workshop of the 40th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agenst and Chemotherapy (as workshop no. 08).  Each participant received a certificate for participation.
• Accreditation: This was handled by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).  ASM is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to sponsor continuing medical education for physicians (ASM has designated full-day workshops suc has this one for 7 hours of category 1 credit towards the American Medical Association Physician's Recognition Award. Diplomates of the American Board of Medical Microbiology, Diplomates of the American Board of Medical Laboratory Immunology, and Registrants of the National Registry of Microbiologists could earn category 1 credit toward recertification).

Faculty:  H. Derenforf (Gainesville, Fla.) O. Cars (Uppsala, Sweden) J. Mouton (Nijmegen, The Netherlands) E. Löwdin, Uppsala, Sweden I. Odenholt (Uppsala, Sweden) W.A. Craig (Madison, WI) F. Van Bambeke (Brussels, Belgium) P.M. Tulkens (Brussels, Belgium)

1: Pharmacokinetics : basic concepts The general concept of pharmacokinetics (concentration-time curves; compartmental vs non compartmental models) Antimicrobial pharmacokinetics:  lessons learned from animal models (elimination in animals, models to decrease clearance,dose linearity) Protein binding and tissue concentrations – do they matter ? (effect of protein binding on efficacy, methods to measure tissue concentrations and interpretation thereof) 2: Pharmacodynamics : basic concepts Microdialysis, protein binding and general concepts of pharmacodynamics (concentration effect relationships, pharmacodynamic parameters) Antimicrobial pharmacodynamics in animal models (use of pharmacodynamic parameters, impact of clearance and neutropenia on effect) The post-antibiotic and sub-MIC effects in vitro and in vivo (definitions, implications therapy) Antimicrobial pharmacodynamics in in-vitro pharmacokinetic models (types of models, pitfalls) The concentration-effect relationships for  intracellular micro-organisms (drug trapping, efflux pumps, intracellular MIC) MIC-controlled dosing or how to use PK/PD relationships to optimize dosing regimens (efficacy, emergence of resistance, toxicity) 3: PK/PD modelling General concepts of PK/PD modelling (types of models, kill curve fitting) Kill curves fitting in vitro and in vivo (relationships to pharmacodynamic parameters) 4. General discussion and perspectives for research and clinical applications

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