Recently Funded Research

Principal Investigator
Peter Hsu, MBBS, PhD
The Children’s Hospital at Westmead

Food Protein-Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome (FPIES) is a type of food allergy that primarily affects young children. Symptoms of FPIES include profuse, repetitive vomiting 1-4 hours after eating a triggering food. Reactions can be dramatic with infants becoming pale, lethargic, and floppy. Severe cases can result in dehydration and low blood pressure.

The underlying biologic mechanism and role of the immune system in FPIES is poorly understood in comparison to typical food allergies that people may be more familiar with. This makes both diagnosis and treatment of FPIES more difficult. 
   
This study aims to identify the types of immune cells that are involved in FPIES to advance knowledge regarding how FPIES can be diagnosed and treated. The study will enroll infants and children who have a known diagnosis of FPIES, along with selected controls for comparison. Blood samples will be collected before, during, and after an FPIES food challenge. These samples will be tested using various analytical methods looking at specific immune cells and their function.

Principal Investigator
Marta Vazquez-Ortiz, MD, PhD
Imperial College London

Acute Food Protein-Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome (FPIES) is a poorly understood type of food allergy. Eating the trigger food can cause severe vomiting, dehydration, low blood pressure, and reduced consciousness. These symptoms are similar to those seen in severe infections. As a result, the diagnosis of FPIES is often delayed or missed altogether.

At present, the only way to confirm that FPIES has gone away is a food challenge, where patients eat the food under medical supervision, risking a reaction. Our inability to easily test for FPIES is a major barrier to diagnosis and management.

In this research proposal, we will use already collected blood samples from the largest European study of patients with FPIES. We will apply the latest scientific methods to understand what happens during reactions, and whether we can identify patterns in gene activation and protein expression that can help diagnose FPIES and predict if patients will tolerate the food at challenge. Our aim is to develop a diagnostic test, which can provide a quick, correct diagnosis when patients first attend emergency departments, and a predictive test that avoids the need to undergo food challenges.

Principal Investigator
Jean-March Busnel, PhD
Beckman Coulter Life Sciences

While oral food challenges (OFCs) are the gold standard for diagnosing food allergies, they can be stressful, expensive, and potentially harmful to patients. As such, OFCs represent a hurdle to clinical management of food allergies, and exclusive reliance on OFCs could lead to underdiagnosis or to unnecessary avoidance of specific foods.

For definitive diagnosis and monitoring of IgE-mediated food allergies, the basophil activation test (BAT) is a promising option to decrease reliance on OFCs. This study aims to overcome some of the technical challenges to the adoption of BAT which currently requires expensive laboratory equipment and skilled laboratory personnel.  

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Principal Investigator
Ruslan Medzhitov, PhD
Food Allergy Science Initiative

Through a multidisciplinary research team, this project aims to identify and explore how the brain, digestive system, and nervous system together examine food in the gut and determine whether or not to trigger an allergic reaction. Understanding this crucial decision-point is key to developing treatments someday that can stop an allergic reaction before it even happens. This work will also address other important questions, including why some individuals can develop allergy-related antibodies to foods without having reaction symptoms and why symptoms vary so widely among allergic individuals, and even from one reaction to the next.

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Principal Investigator
R. Sharon Chinthrajah, MD
Stanford University

COMBINE is the first study to use two biologics, omalizumab and dupilumab, in combination with multifood-allergen oral immunotherapy (OIT). Omalizumab reduces the antibodies that cause allergic reactions, and dupilumab inhibits the inflammation that occurs in allergic responses. By targeting these responses to OIT, the study aims to reduce the uncomfortable gastrointestinal (GI) side effects, such as stomachaches and nausea, that cause some patients to drop out of OIT before they finish. With this approach, patients can start at higher doses, get to their maintenance dose faster, and keep moving forward with their OIT.

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