Belinda Smith

So you can think of them now as being overly hyperactive and looking to respond to things they shouldn't respond to, like dog dander.

food allergies, you know, egg proteins.

So all of these diseases, we've referred to them as diseases of modernity, are things, these autoimmune conditions and many other diseases that are driven by an inappropriate immune response.

Many of those diseases now can be wound back or wound down.

The inflammation can be toned down with worm infections.

With worm infections or perhaps if you create an industry that extracts the active ingredient, you could treat them.

Exactly.

And we have indeed formed a biotechnology company that is doing exactly that.

And where is it based?

It's based right here in Cairns.

Oh, really?

That's good.

Yes.

The company's called Macrobiome Therapeutics, and it's raised a seed round of investment.

So we are developing a number of candidate molecules secreted by these worms, trying to make them more drug-like now, make them look a little bit more like the sorts of biologics drugs that we use to treat many of these diseases.

But these are not designed on a computer.

They're inspired by co-evolutionary biology.

Have you taken any worms by doing?

I have not yet.

Could you?