Nordic Life Science 1
INTERVIEW // NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE “With time, I ha
ve learnt to appreciate the importance of the scientific environment for the success of my ambitious research projects, and I now try to be an enabler of the best science possible also in a larger perspective. The academic system relies on us working together and taking on collegial tasks, but it is important to be able to do this without sacrificing one’s own research.” have contributed to every step towards success, and to be brave and speak up when you have important things to say. This is gender-neutral advice, and I guess the challenge is to know which part of this advice to follow.” M ia also uses her membership in the Royal Swedish Acaademy of Science to communicate information about science to the public, a very important role for scientists today, she believes. “I think we scientists probably need to improve our communication, but I also believe that a great responsibility rests on the media to not succumb to click-bait and instead help us convey difficult messages. The truth is often that even though we know some things for certain, other parts of the picture are not as clear and are much more challenging to communicate.” The Royal Swedish Academy of Science also selects the winners of several of the Nobel Prizes, and although Mia is not partaking in this task, she has been giving several “Nobel lectures” at schools and preschools in Uppsala. “They have been followed by a three-course lunch in the canteen, where the pupils get edible golden medals and the teachers are dressed up more than they are usually,” she describes. “It is a very festive way to focus on curiosity-driven basic science, and the importance of these for innovations that affect our entire community. The Nobel Prize week gives us a unique possibility to focus and celebrate science, and to communicate this to the wide society in Sweden.” Ilya Pharma In 2016, Mia co-founded Ilya Pharma together with her previous PhD student Evelina Vågesjö, who now serves as the CEO, and Stefan Roos, Associate Professor in Microbiology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. The clinical stage Endless potential Phillipson’s research combines immunology and physiology, including identifying the contributions of different immune cells important for tissue and organ physiology and how their behavior is regulated in different situations including inflammation, tissue restitution and development. The goal is to apply these findings to develop novel therapies to treat disease. One of those unique approaches showing clinical promise recently is using genetically modified bacteria to speed wound healing, the first time bacteria has ever been tested for this purpose in a randomized controlled trial. Difficult-to-heal wounds are a growing medical problem and there are currently only two drugs approved with documented efficacy. NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG | 33 biopharmaceutical development company’s treatments target the function of tissue-resident immune cells and it is currently pursuing three clinical programs with fully owned assets from its proprietary ILP-technology platform. The company was formed based on discoveries that were part of Evelina's PhD thesis and is inspired by the early work of Professor Ilya Mechnicov who also received the Nobel Prize in 1908, describing specific functions of immune cells. “We had the scientific findings of chemokines and immune cells in injured and ischemic tissue at Uppsala University with a gene therapy based approach. Then we developed the technology platform where lactic acid bacteria express the chemokines (ILP-drug candidates), industrialization, and when we tested them and they worked better than expected in animal models, we founded Ilya Pharma and transferred all data and intellectual property developed to the company,” describes Evelina Vågesjö. Her former professor, co-founder and business partner, Mia Phillipson, has meant everything for the scientific parts of the company, Vågesjö adds. “I thought that she had a fantastic approach to science ten years ago and it is just getting better and better. She is very brave and continues to amaze me and others.”