U-M’s food allergy research hub, the Mary H. Weiser Food Allergy Center, is embarking on a long-range study that will collect data from families, including newborns, to study how genetics and environment intersect in the development of food allergy.
Why do some kids develop food allergy, while others, even those in the same family, do not? Why has food allergy in children doubled in just the past 20 years?
Unraveling those mysteries is the aim of a new long-range study being launched by the Mary H. Weiser Food Allergy Center, the University of Michigan’s hub for food allergy research.
Unlike some studies, where investigators look at people with established food allergy diagnoses, this project will enroll participants even before they are born.
The Michigan Sibling Immunity Birth Study (M-SIBS) will begin recruiting pregnant subjects early this year, and will follow the newborns from birth to age three, periodically collecting samples and health information from baby, parents and siblings.
“The aim of M-SIBS is to evaluate early life factors that lead to the development of food allergy,” said the project’s director, Kelly O’Shea, MD. As an allergist at Michigan Medicine and assistant research professor, she cares for patients with food allergy as well as conducting scientific studies and clinical trials.
Birth cohort research is emerging as a tool to investigate food allergy disorders, which tend to appear in children by the time they are two years old, says Dr. O’Shea. “There is a clear interplay between genetics and environment; we plan to tease out markers in both areas by looking at factors from familial allergy history, the home environment, and the participants’ genetic signatures as well as microbiome.”
For example, she noted, if a sibling has food allergy, a younger sibling has approximately double the average likelihood of having food allergy as well. Among monozygotic (identical) twins, there is a 65 percent chance that if one has food allergy, the other will, too.
The M-SIBS program will aim to recruit 1,000 pregnant women and their babies over the next three to four years, from among Michigan Medicine patients. To qualify, the newborns must have one first-degree relative (parent, sibling) with an atopic disease such as asthma, seasonal allergies, or eczema.
Researchers will take biological samples and survey data from birth and continue to follow the participants intermittently until age three. The children will be evaluated for eczema, a known precursor to food allergy, and tested for food sensitivities starting at five months.
Parents and siblings also will give samples on one occasion. Subjects will be visited at home and surveyed periodically about health and environmental factors.
Participating families will benefit either by having food allergy ruled out, or accurately diagnosed at an early stage in the child’s development, so that parents can take appropriate precautions. The research will fill gaps in scientific knowledge regarding the early life development of food allergy and provide investigators with ideas for new treatments and therapies. The biological and environmental samples will be stored for future use by researchers, as well.
Your gift in any amount will advance the study of food allergy by our eminent faculty. Keep informed by signing up for the Weiser center newsletter at UofMFoodAllergy.org.
Donors
View All Donors