Bart Ploeger has studied pharmacy at Groningen University (the Netherlands). After obtaining his MSc. (specialisation in pharmacology) and PharmD, he started his PhD. project in 1996 at Utrecht University. Subject of his thesis was the risk assessment of chronic liquorice intake by PB-PK-PD modelling analysis. Dr. Ploeger joined LAP&P consultants BV in Leiden, The Netherlands in 2000 and from 2004 onwards he occupies the position of Chief Scientific Officer. LAP&P provides consultancy services in the area of PK-PD modelling to the pharmaceutical industry, including data-analysis and clinical trial simulation to support (pre)clinical drug development. In addition, he is appointed in 2001 as assistant professor of applied PK-PD data-analysis at Leiden University. His research focuses on mechanism-based PK-PD modelling, disease progression analysis and optimisation of clinical trial designs using clinical trial simulation. During his sabbatical leave in 2007 he collaborated with Nick Holford (Department of Pharmacology & Clinical Pharmacology, University of Auckland, New Zealand) on optimising trial designs to distinguish short and long term treatment effects from disease progression in Parkinson's disease.