Published in Oct. in the Journal of Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics, the model assesses metabolic and cardiovascular biomarkers – measurable biological processes such as cholesterol levels, body mass index, glucose and blood pressure – to calculate health status and disease risks across a patient's lifespan. The findings are critical due to the increased risk of developing metabolic and cardiovascular diseases with aging, a process that has adverse effects on cellular, psychological and behavioral processes. "There is an unmet need for scalable approaches that can provide guidance for pharmaceutical care across the lifespan in the presence of aging and chronic co-morbidities," says lead author Murali Ramanathan, PhD, professor of pharmaceutical sciences in the UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. "This knowledge gap may be potentially bridged by innovative disease progression modeling." The model could facilitate the assessment of long-term chronic drug therapies, and help clinicians monitor treatment responses for conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure, which become more frequent with age, says Ramanathan.