At the intersection of academic research and biotech innovation, Emilia Lahtinen is pursuing her industrial PhD as a collaboration between Gedea Biotech and Karolinska Institutet (KI). Her research explores one of the
most dynamic and complex areas in women’s health — the vaginal microbiome — and how new, non-antibiotic treatments can restore its natural balance to treat bacterial vaginosis.
– Being part of both environments gives me the best of two worlds, says Emilia. At KI, I have access to cutting-edge microbiome research, while at Gedea, I can apply that knowledge directly to clinical data and product development.
Exploring the vaginal microbiome
Emilia’s doctoral project Bacterial vaginosis: Understanding the impact of antibiotic and antibiotic-free treatments on the vaginal microbiome and risk of recurrence focuses on how the vaginal microbiome changes during and after treatment for bacterial vaginosis (BV) — a common and often recurrent condition that affects millions of women worldwide. Despite the availability of antibiotic therapies, recurrence rates remain high, and disruption of the natural microbiome is a persistent challenge. To explore these microbial changes in depth, Emilia combines shotgun metagenomic sequencing and quantitative PCR (qPCR) analyses.
Shotgun sequencing allows her to examine all microbial DNA in each sample — revealing which species and genes are present and offering insights into microbial interactions — while qPCR provides precise quantification of specific key bacteria. Together, these complementary methods give a picture of how the vaginal microbiome responds to treatment.
A new publication: results and surprises
In her latest publication, now available on ScienceDirect, Emilia presents findings from Gedea’s CL3 clinical trial, describing the microbiome composition before and after pHyph treatment. The results reveal a gradual recovery of beneficial Lactobacillus species, especially L. iners, and a return toward microbial balance — offering less disruption to the vaginal microbiome than seen after antibiotic therapy.
-I was carefully optimistic about the results and got excited when we found a decrease in the bacteria associated with BV and an increase in lactobacilli, which is very interesting. It was fascinating to see how individual microbes responded differently, yet overall, the data showed a consistent trend towards restoration of balance, Emilia explains.
Collaboration, supervision and international experience
Emilia’s work is supervised by Ina Schuppe Koistinen (Karolinska Institutet), Gabriella Edfeldt (Karolinska Institutet), Helena Strevens (Medical Director at Gedea Biotech), and Luisa Hugerth (Uppsala University). Together, they provide a strong interdisciplinary framework spanning clinical medicine, microbiology, and translational research.
This summer, Emilia also spent time at the Kwon Lab in Boston at the Ragon Institute of Harvard, MIT, and Massachusetts General Hospital— a world-leading center for research on host–microbe interactions, with a strong focus on HIV and mucosal immunology. The Kwon Lab has also been involved in the analysis of the Lactin-V-trials [a probiotic drug under development for treatment of BV], which makes the lab an epicenter of scientific discussions on microbes and vaginal health. During her time in the Kwon lab, Emilia gained access to a curated microbial database and applied the lab’s pipelines to analyze data from Gedea’s CL3 study.Her focus was on exploring strain-level differences in bacterial populations to investigate potential links to treatment outcome or recurrence of BV.
-I am very grateful for the Kwon lab for the opportunity to visit them during the summer and learn from their team and expertise. I am hoping these results will be part of a bigger publication focusing on the shotgun data that we have for the same samples that we have qCPR for.
Looking ahead
So far, Emilia has co-authored two scientific publications and continues to explore new datasets related to vaginal microbiome dynamics. Her goal is to defend her thesis within the next year — a milestone both Gedea and her academic supervisors are looking forward to celebrating.
Next steps ahead will be a publication on the qCPR data for the CL3-2 trial and finalize the shotgun analysis of the CL3 trial. And then start writing the thesis!
From all of us at Gedea — congratulations on the new publication, Emilia, and best of luck as you continue your journey toward your PhD defence!