Ivy Blog
Artak Tovmasyan Named Director of Pharmacokinetics
The Ivy Brain Tumor Center at Barrow Neurological Institute welcomes Artak Tovmasyan, Pharm.D., Ph.D. as its new director of pharmacokinetics. Dr. Tovmasyan has an extensive background in pharmaceutical chemistry and joins the research team from the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute in North Carolina where he was a senior research associate.
“I’ve always dreamt of one day having the opportunity to participate in a drug development process in the cancer field, the field where efficacious drugs are of an urgent need,” says Dr. Tovmasyan. “The research we are doing at the Ivy Brain Tumor Center will enhance our understanding of brain cancer treatment where any small progress can have a large impact on a patient’s life expectancy and quality of life.”
Dr. Tovmasyan received his Doctor of Pharmacy, completed his residency and earned his doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences at Yerevan State Medical University in Yerevan, Armenia. From there, he was recruited by Duke University and spent the last ten years working on drug development including Phase 1/2 clinical trials testing the safety of certain types of drugs.
The newly established Center is taking on some of the deadliest brain tumors with its unconventional approach to drug therapy using first-of-its-kind Phase 0/2 clinical trials. In his new role, Dr. Tovmasyan will supervise the pharmacokinetic research department that will help enable physicians to directly implement the most effective regimens for brain tumor treatment in the initial phase of the clinical trial.
“What we’re doing at the Ivy Brain Tumor Center has never been done before and so we are recruiting only the best to help us reach our goal to one day cure brain cancer,” says Director of the Ivy Brain Tumor Center, Dr. Nader Sanai. “With Dr. Tovmasyan’s skill set and background in pharmaceutical sciences, we’ll be able to further extend our research in new and innovative areas.”