Frauke Assmus

Frauke has worked as a Pharmacometrician within the department of Clinical Pharmacology at MORU, in Bangkok, Thailand since 2018.

A pharmacist and epidemiologist by training with several years’ industrial and academic experience in preclinical drug discovery, Frauke’s research at MORU has a focus on drug discovery for neglected tropical diseases, such as onchocerciasis (river blindness), Chagas disease and visceral leishmaniasis. More specifically, she applies pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modelling and simulation to provide an evidence-based rational for drug candidate selection, dosing optimization and clinical trial design. She works in close collaboration with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi).

Currently, Frauke is working on a translational framework for antichagasic and antileishmanial drug discovery, with the aim to bridge the gap between pre-clinical animal models and clinical studies in human disease. Her work also contributed to the dosing optimization of emodepside, a drug candidate which holds promise to accelerate the progress towards onchocerciasis elimination.

Since 2021, Frauke has been involved in pharmacokinetic profiling of repurposed drug candidates for mild-to-moderate COVID-19 (ANTICOV trial). The main goal of this multidisciplinary collaboration was to identify the most promising treatments that can prevent progression to severe COVID-19 and relief already overburdened health care systems, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

Frauke is a member of the association Pharmacists without Borders Germany.