Donation supports innovative drug platform targeting prostate cancer

“I’m honoured and very grateful for this generous donation. It means long-term funding that allows us to go further, recruit more people and invest in equipment. We will now be able to work further on our technology, also focusing on prostate cancer,” says Sara Mangsbo.

Sara Mangsbo is Professor and group leader in Biopharmaceuticals at the Department of Pharmacy. For almost 20 years, she has focused her research that involves developing individualised immunotherapies for cancer. With her research group, she has developed an innovative method where a specific fragment based on the patient’s own tumour is “presented” to the immune system in order to prime an immune response in the patient. This leads to large quantities of T-cells being produced. To achieve this, the fragment is “glued” to a specially developed antibody that targets specific receptors (receptor cells) in the immune system. The result is that the immune system is “taught” to vigorously and specifically attack the tumour cells.

The research group has published a study in Nature Communications in which they describe a new technology for producing individualised peptide-based cancer vaccines where targeted drug delivery is combined with effective stimulation of the immune system. The technology has so far been successfully tested in cell-based models and in mouse models. Sara Mangsbo also has experience of taking her research innovations to market in companies, which allows development towards a finished drug candidate. She has previously conducted research that has gone all the way to clinical trials (clinical studies in humans) in solid cancers such as prostate cancer and pancreatic cancer.

Investigated the state of the research

When Björn Gysell, electronics engineer and founder of the security company Alarmtech was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer, he decided to use AI to investigate what the state of the research was. He soon came across Sara Mangsbo’s research. He read further, found the article in Nature and was very impressed.

“I thought she had come a long way, perhaps the furthest of all. After an e-mail to her, we met and talked and that was the beginning. My understanding is that relatively few researchers in this field are focusing on prostate cancer. More than 10,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, and 2,000 men die from the disease. It’s the biggest form of cancer affecting men, so more research is needed to find better treatments, and I wanted to support that,” says Björn Gysell.

SEK 30 million over three years

He will now be supporting Sara Mangsbo’s academic research with a donation of SEK 30 million over three years, funded from the dividends he would otherwise have taken out of his company. As an experienced entrepreneur, he understands that you need many disciplines in this work, and a production chain, to get to market.

“You need teamwork, focus and long-term funding. When you read about this method, it can feel hard to believe, like magic somehow, but I think it has the potential to lead to a treatment that can slow the progression of cancer, or even be a cure. I really believe in Sara, and so it feels particularly inspiring to me to be making this contribution,” says Björn Gysell.

Anneli Waara