A Virtual Patient: Interview with Thomas Hartung in Dutch Journal Medicines (PDF)

By: Bo Blanckenburg

A computer model of the human body would be Prof. Hartung’s ideal solution to the problems that plague of old toxicology. This approach borrows heavily from the integrated biology field of systems biology and attempts to combine symptomatic, genetic, proteomic, and metabolomics data. Looking at Thomas Hartung's resume, a multidisciplinary approach is hardly surprising. In Germany he did his undergraduate studies in math and information technologies, has a MD in toxicology and a PhD in pharmacology. “I want to shift the toxicological view of the body as a black box with symptoms to one of an intricately connected machine, with major and minor processes influencing each other in specific and predictable ways,” explains Hartung.

"An update in the field of toxicology is long overdue," states professor Thomas Hartung. "Drug design and discovery benefit directly from the latest technology, but toxicologists still work with protocols from the sixties. It is time for change."