ii To my parents and my beloved family, Trung Nguyen, Tri Nguyen and San Nguyen iii The purpose of models is not to fit the data, but to sharpen the questions.Samuel Karlin (1924 ), Evolutionary Geneticist iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to all those people who have made this dissertation possible and because of whom my graduate experience at the University of Iowa has been one that I will cherish forever. This thesis would not have been completed without the help, support and patience of my major advisor, Dr. Lee E. Kirsch. His insightful advices and constructive criticisms at different stages of my research helped me define research scope and develop the ideas. I am grateful to him for assisting me in my growth, and teaching me how to do research. A special thanks goes to Dr. Stephen Stamatis, who has been an invaluable help and enthusiastic mentor, teaching me everything I know about R and programming. He also provided me detailed discussions on PBPK modeling theory. In many ways I have learnt much from and because of him! I also acknowledge Dr. Donovan, former Division Head, who always supports and provides valuable suggestions to students in the department. I would like to thank Dr. Salem, Dr. Jonathan and Dr. Murry for serving on my comprehensive and thesis committee. I am greatly appreciative of all of the professors in the pharmaceutics department who worked with me or taught my courses. In my daily work I enjoyed the academic life with a friendly and cheerful group of fellow students, Mai, Yingjian, Radaduen, Ana, Varsha and Rakesh. I would like to thank them for our exchanges of knowledge, skills and some good laughs. I am also grateful to my former lab mates, Salil, Zong and Jiang whose many informal discussions and guidance were valuable for my progress at the University of Iowa. They are such kind and supportive friends that have helped me overcome setbacks and stay sane through these difficult years. Lastly, I want to thank Prof. Long Nguyen, Prof. Linh Tran and my colleagues at Hanoi University of Pharmacy who encouraged me to continue on academic path. My years at Iowa could not have been memorable without my friends Dan, Linh, Hung, Viet, v Cuong and Hang. Above all, none of this would have been possible without the love and encouragement of my family. My late parents, even without their presence, always cared and stood by me. My husband, with his constant source of love, was always there to cheer me up, supported me through the good and bad times. Words cannot express my love for my children, Tri and San, who are the motivation and joy of my life. vi
ABSTRACTDegradation product toxicity is a critical quality issue for a small group of useful drug products-e.g. lidocaine, isoniazid, chlorhexidine, gabapentin. In the traditional risk assessment approaches, a no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) derived from animal data is determined with the use of generic (and arbitrary) uncertainty factors to obtain an