|New Food Allergy Research Consortium Focuses
on Peanut Allergy
The only advice doctors can give to
the 4 percent of Americans with potentially life-threatening food
allergies is to avoid the culprit food, often nuts or shellfish.
But that may change as researchers in a new Food Allergy Research
Consortium, announced today, strive to develop therapies to treat
and prevent food allergy.
The consortium, led by Hugh Sampson, M.D., at the Mount Sinai School
of Medicine in New York City, will receive approximately $17 million
over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. In
addition, a five-year NIAID grant totaling approximately $5 million
to the Emmes Corporation, of Rockville, MD, will fund a statistical
center to support the consortium.
“The expertise of the Food Allergy Research Consortium provides
a unique opportunity to investigate basic immunologic mechanisms
associated with food allergy in animal models and humans, and, ultimately,
to test novel therapies to treat food allergy,” says Daniel
Rotrosen, M.D., director of NIAID’s Division of Allergy, Immunology
The consortium will conduct basic, clinical and epidemiological
studies, and develop educational programs aimed at parents, children
and healthcare providers.
The consortium’s first project will be a clinical study to
evaluate a potential peanut allergy therapy. This potential therapy
is expected to work in much the same fashion as allergy shots in
which allergic individuals are given increasing doses of an allergen.
The shots stimulate an immune response that protects against future
allergic reactions. The existing approach, however, cannot be used
in people with peanut allergies due to the risk of life-threatening
reactions. To overcome this barrier, Dr. Sampson and Wesley Burks,
M.D., of Duke University, Durham, NC, developed modified versions
of peanut allergens that have been shown to be safe and effective
in animal models. The consortium will evaluate these modified allergens
in human clinical trials led by Robert Wood, M.D., of the Johns
Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore.
The consortium’s second project is an observational study
that will enroll 400 infants who have allergies to milk or eggs.
Such children are at higher risk of developing peanut allergy, but
the vast majority will lose their allergies to those foods as they
grow up. The study will follow the children for at least five years
and study immunologic changes that accompany the loss of allergy
to foods and the development of allergy to new foods. This study
will be led by Scott Sicherer, M.D., at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
The clinical and observational studies will take place at five
- Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York; Principal Investigator:
Hugh Sampson, M.D.
- Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore;
Principal Investigator: Robert Wood, M.D.
- Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC; Principal
Investigator: Wesley Burks, M.D.
- University of Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research
Institute, Little Rock; Principal Investigator: Stacie Jones, M.D.
- National Jewish Medical and Research Center, Denver; Principal
Investigator: Donald Leung, M.D., Ph.D.
For information about participating in the Food Allergy Research
Consortium’s clinical and observational studies, please call
the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Pediatric Allergy Division, at
The consortium’s third project will conduct basic immunobiology
research to determine the biological mechanisms of peanut allergy
in mice. This knowledge will provide insights into allergic mechanisms
in humans, which will lead to the identification and development
of potential strategies to treat and prevent food allergies in humans.
This research will be led by Kim Bottomly, Ph.D., of Yale University,
New Haven, CT, in collaboration with Dr. Sampson and Lloyd Mayer,
M.D., at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
In addition, the consortium will conduct a two-pronged educational
program to teach parents and children how to avoid food allergens,
and train pediatric health care professionals to treat and prevent
NIAID is a component of the National Institutes of Health, an agency
of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIAID supports
basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose and treat infectious
diseases such as HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections,
influenza, tuberculosis, malaria and illness from potential agents
of bioterrorism. NIAID also supports research on transplantation
and immune-related illnesses, including autoimmune disorders, asthma
News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials
are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www.niaid.nih.gov.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) The Nation's
Medical Research Agency is comprised of 27 Institutes
and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health
and Human Services. It is the primary Federal agency for conducting
and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research,
and investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common
and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs,