Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Recently there has been great productivity in the area of food allergy research. These have included large genetic studies, studies on prevention of allergy, and studies on making people people tolerant to foods by small amounts by mouth or through the skin. Our trans-disciplinary Canadian food allergy research group has completed work on peanut allergy, and found new genes that are related to interaction of DNA with the environment, as well as genes that are found associated with in other food allergies and other allergic diseases like asthma, eosinophilic esophagitis, allergic rhinitis (hayfever) and eczema (atopic dermatitis). Food allergy and allergic conditions are complex - we do not know if the genes that cause a specific food allergy are the same for another, or if food allergy genes are the same as those that cause other allergic diseases. We also do not know how these genes interact with the environment. This is a particularly complex problem as people may have all of these conditions simultaneously, and some also resolve on their own. We have in Canada the largest case group of peanut-allergic subjects; however, in our collaborations with other researchers we have realized that with a complex disease such as food allergy even larger numbers of individuals are required to tease out what genes may be related to allergic disease. We therefore propose in this grant to hold a meeting in Vancouver, BC to help move towards an international food allergy consortium.