Artur Schmidtchen, MD, PhD is Professor and Senior Consultant in Dermatology at Lund University and Lund University Hospital, Sweden, where he leads the Division of Dermatology and Venereology. His research bridges basic science and clinical innovation, focusing on the role of innate immunity in wound healing, infection, and inflammation. Applications include novel strategies for treating dysfunctional wound healing and systemic inflammatory diseases.
His work is grounded in the concept that the human body encodes innate immune regulators within its own proteins, released dynamically during proteolysis. Using an integrated approach combining mass spectrometry, computational modeling, biochemistry, microbiology, cell biology, and translational in vivo models, his lab has developed new therapeutic and diagnostic tools.
Prof. Schmidtchen’s group discovered thrombin-derived C-terminal peptides (TCPs), including TCP-25, which exert dual effects—direct antimicrobial activity and anti-inflammatory effects mediated via CD14/TLR inhibition (Nat Commun, 2018). TCP-25 has demonstrated efficacy in large animal wound models (Sci Transl Med, 2020), entered clinical trials, and received FDA Orphan Drug Designation for epidermolysis bullosa in 2024. Building on the TCP structure, his team designed sHVF18, a stapled peptide mimetic with improved systemic stability and efficacy in preclinical models of sepsis and systemic inflammation (Nat Commun, 2023). In parallel, his group has developed peptidomic methods for identifying proteolytic signatures and infection endotypes in wounds, supporting the development of precision diagnostics (eLife, 2021; Nat Commun, 2024).
Prof. Schmidtchen has held international academic roles, including Professor and Scientific Director at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Affiliated Professor at the University of Copenhagen. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed articles and is the founder of Xinnate AB, Transient Pharma AB, and in2cure AB, which translate peptide-based discoveries into clinical applications.
