Nordic Life Science 1
“You must be extremely committed and sometimes st
ubborn. You have to have a selective bad memory and be extremely curious. Communication also has become much more important.” T ogether with her colleagues, Phillipson has now shown in a study conducted on humans that treatment with a special type of modified lactic acid bacteria works well and produces good effects on wound healing. Overall, 36 healthy volunteers were included in the study and a total of 240 induced wounds were studied. “Our study shows that bacteria modified to produce and deliver human proteins for local effects can be used as drugs to accelerate wound healing. This is the first time this has been shown in controlled studies on humans, and it can be expected that the effect is greater in patients with diseases that negatively affect wound healing,” stated Mia Phillipson at the time of the announcement. “The potential is actually endless when you consider how important a role proteins have in various processes in the body, and how many diseases we currently do not have good enough treatment for. We have already made another drug candidate to heal and reduce inflammation in the gut in cancer patients. It's called ILP100-Oral and going forward we will start a research project with another chemokine for the treatment of lung diseases.” Next generation immunotherapy The next step for much of the type of research in which Mia Phillipson is engaged is to start developing the next generation of immunotherapy. “We have to take advantage of what immune cells have evolved to do,” she explains. “We have to discover novel mechanisms of action, and then develop means to influence these actions by cell therapies and biologics. Basic research has an expanding tool box of cool technologies, and that must be coupled with development to have a fast track to clinical trials and then researchers need to make wiser choices when it comes to drug candidate selections.” Mia’s passions include being in an environment where she can grow and learn new things and she has a driving force to create such an environment, “So people can achieve more than they could on their own. When they arise, it’s amazing,” she says. Continuing to do the type of work she is doing, while having fun, and working with things she feels are important are how Phillipson views the future. “It is marvelous to be part of the journey of Ilya Pharma, pioneering bugs as drugs with my champion-colleagues Evelina and Stefan. And this is just the first at our attempts of developing basic scientific findings to the benefit of patients,” she concludes. NLS 34 | NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG