Esther van Duijn

I received my Ph.D. at the Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry group at the Utrecht University and demonstrated the potential of native mass spectrometry in structural biology. I continued to work in this field for several years, and joined TNO in 2012. Within TNO my work focusses on the applications of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) and High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (primarily) in drug development. I am very enthusiastic about the direct applications that we can offer with this innovative technology. For example, early phase microdosing and microtracer studies to generate human data on absolute bio-availability, pharmacokinetics and mass balance/metabolite profiling studies. Besides these direct applications my work at TNO focusses on the continuous development of the technology to better support the (sometimes still unmet) needs in drug discovery. In addition to the technological aspect in my work I focus on the application of the technology in drug discovery focusing on vulnerable populations, such as pediatric patients and pregnant and lactating women. Microdosing/microtracing provides an unique possibility to gain insight into safe and effective drug dosing in these special populations.