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  <front>
    <journal-meta>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="iso-abbrev">Pharmacophore</journal-id>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">pharmacophorejournal.com</journal-id>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">Pharmacophore</journal-id>
      <journal-title-group>
        <journal-title>Pharmacophore</journal-title>
      </journal-title-group>
      <issn pub-type="epub">2229-5402</issn>
    </journal-meta>
    <article-meta>
      <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">pharmacophorejournal.com-6885</article-id>
      <article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.51847/hfTXxQ9dlx</article-id>
      <article-categories>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
          <subject>Original research</subject>
        </subj-group>
      </article-categories>
      <title-group>
        <article-title>Transformer-Based PK/PD Modeling for Monoclonal Antibody Dosing from Sparse Concentration Data</article-title>
      </title-group>
                    <contrib-group>
                      <contrib contrib-type="author">
              <name>
                <surname>Nkosi</surname>
                <given-names>Thabo</given-names>
              </name>
                              <xref rid="aff1" ref-type="aff">1</xref>
                                                            <xref rid="cor1" ref-type="corresp" />
                          </contrib>
                      <contrib contrib-type="author">
              <name>
                <surname>Molefe</surname>
                <given-names>Lerato</given-names>
              </name>
                              <xref rid="aff1" ref-type="aff">1</xref>
                                        </contrib>
                      <contrib contrib-type="author">
              <name>
                <surname>Dlamini</surname>
                <given-names>Sipho</given-names>
              </name>
                              <xref rid="aff2" ref-type="aff">2</xref>
                                        </contrib>
                      <contrib contrib-type="author">
              <name>
                <surname>Mokoena</surname>
                <given-names>Ayanda</given-names>
              </name>
                              <xref rid="aff1" ref-type="aff">1</xref>
                                        </contrib>
                      <contrib contrib-type="author">
              <name>
                <surname>Ndlovu</surname>
                <given-names>Kabelo</given-names>
              </name>
                              <xref rid="aff2" ref-type="aff">2</xref>
                                        </contrib>
                  </contrib-group>
                  <aff id="aff1">
            <label>1</label>Department of Computational Pharmaceutical Engineering, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
          </aff>
                  <aff id="aff2">
            <label>2</label>Department of AI Drug Systems, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
          </aff>
                          <author-notes>
            <corresp id="cor1">
              <bold>Address for correspondence:</bold> Prof. Wael Abu Dayyih, Department of
              Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mutah University, Al-Karak 61710, Jordan.
                              E-mail: <email xlink:href="thabo.nkosi@gmail.com">thabo.nkosi@gmail.com</email>
                          </corresp>
          </author-notes>
                    <pub-date pub-type="epub">
        <day>28</day>
        <month>02</month>
        <year>2026</year>
      </pub-date>
      <volume>17</volume>
      <issue>1</issue>
      <fpage>120</fpage>
      <lpage>128</lpage>
      <permissions>
        <copyright-statement>
          Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Pharmacophore
        </copyright-statement>
        <copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
        <license>
          <ali:license_ref xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/"
            specific-use="textmining" content-type="ccbyncsalicense">
            https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/</ali:license_ref>
          <license-p>This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of
            the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows
            others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate
            credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.</license-p>
        </license>
      </permissions>
      <abstract>
        <title>A<sc>BSTRACT</sc></title>
        <p>Monoclonal antibodies are central to modern biologic therapy for inflammatory, oncologic, and immune-mediated diseases, yet their pharmacokinetics are often nonlinear, highly variable between patients, and challenging to individualize when only limited concentration measurements are available. Traditional population PK/PD modeling and Bayesian forecasting rely on predefined structural models and assumptions regarding clearance, distribution, and variability, which can be fragile when data consist of sparse or irregularly timed therapeutic drug monitoring samples. To address these limitations, this MDL article proposes a transformer-based sequence model for individualized monoclonal antibody dosing, designed to infer patient-specific exposure patterns from sparse concentration data, dosing history, and clinical covariates without requiring an explicit compartmental model. The model employs a transformer encoder to process variable-length sequences of time, concentration, dose, and covariate tuples, using self-attention to capture relationships among prior doses, measured concentrations, elapsed time, and patient factors, thereby generating predicted future concentration trajectories and dose recommendations aimed at a target exposure window. Conceptually, this approach enables individualized concentration forecasts and dose suggestions even with minimal concentration data, complementing Bayesian forecasting by learning flexible temporal patterns that are difficult to specify parametrically. By extending model-informed precision dosing to data-sparse biologic treatment settings, a transformer-based framework could enhance the clinical utility of therapeutic drug monitoring for monoclonal antibodies while maintaining the need for prospective validation and clinical oversight</p>
      </abstract>
      <kwd-group>
                <kwd>Monoclonal antibodies</kwd>
                <kwd>Transformer</kwd>
                <kwd>Pharmacokinetics</kwd>
                <kwd>Pharmacodynamics</kwd>
                <kwd>Model-informed precision dosing</kwd>
                <kwd>Sparse data</kwd>
              </kwd-group>
    </article-meta>
  </front>
</article>