Q&A with Dr. Shamimur Akanda: Computational Modeling to Predict Drug Behavior in Treating Joint Diseases

Researchers are making significant strides in accelerating drug development using computers to simulate and study complex biological systems. Shamimur Akanda, PhD, a postdoctoral trainee at Washington University in St. Louis, received a 2025 PhRMA Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Drug Delivery for his work developing a computational model to predict how medicines will behave when injected into joints to treat diseases such as osteoarthritis.

Drug delivery through the joint depends on the drug’s properties, the drug carrier, and the type of joint tissue. Akanda’s model uses these factors to predict the residence time of drugs, or how long drugs remain attached to their intended target, after being injected into the joint space both with and without a slowly releasing drug carrier. His model successfully predicted that small molecular weight drugs from a slow-release carrier have longer residence time in the joint and are associated with a lower peak drug concentration in the tissue.

Akanda will validate his model by tagging drugs with fluorescent markers that can be traced as they move through the small animal joints. The ability to successfully predict drug residence time could help improve the design of preclinical experiments and reduce the number of animal studies typically needed to figure out drug dosing for joint disease treatments. Watch this video to learn more about Akanda and his research.

Learn more about the PhRMA Foundation’s fellowship and grant opportunities. Check out more researcher stories on our blog.