My name is Aya Ismail, and I am a clinical pharmacologist based in Cairo, Egypt, working in the field of clinical research and one of the co-founders of the Pharmacometrics Africa Egypt Chapter. I was also a fellow in the Advanced Pharmacometrics Training (APT) 2025 cohort. In 2026, I had the opportunity to travel to Croatia with my colleague Allan Kengo to present our work at the Population Approach Group Europe (PAGE) 2026 conference.
Attending the PAGE 2026 conference was a very special experience for me, as it was my first time attending.
For the first time, I was not simply following discussions about PAGE, reading its abstracts, or hearing about the incredible scientific exchanges taking place within the pharmacometrics community. I was actually there surrounded by scientists whose work had inspired my own journey into pharmacometrics. As someone coming from Egypt and growing within the African pharmacometrics community, this experience felt particularly meaningful.
For me, the experience was made even more meaningful by the opportunity to present our project as part of the APT 2025 cohort. With my colleague Allan Kengo, we presented our work as a poster, sharing the project we had developed throughout the fellowship. You can view our poster here.
This opportunity was made possible through the support and funding of Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), which enabled us to attend PAGE and present our work. I am particularly grateful to Robin Eriksson from MMV and Wynand Smythe from Certara for their supervision and guidance throughout the project, as well as to Pharmacometrics Africa for being part of the APT 2025 cohort and supporting the development of pharmacometrics capacity across Africa.
Standing beside our poster and discussing our work with scientists from around the world was both exciting and humbling. It was a moment that made me reflect on the journey from learning the fundamentals of pharmacometrics, working through models and data, and gradually gaining confidence, to finally presenting our work on an international stage.
For me, however, PAGE was about much more than presenting a poster. It was the conversations between sessions, meeting people whose work I had previously only encountered through papers and presentations, exchanging ideas, and experiencing firsthand the openness of the global pharmacometrics community.
The experience also made me reflect on how important it is to create more opportunities for African scientists to learn, connect, and contribute.
There is tremendous scientific talent across Africa. What we need is stronger connectivity, mentorship, training opportunities, and platforms that allow this talent to become part of the global pharmacometrics community.
This is why organizations such as Pharmacometrics Africa are so important.
I returned from PAGE 2026 with new knowledge, valuable connections, constructive feedback, and, most importantly, renewed motivation to contribute to the growth of pharmacometrics in Africa.
