Food allergies have emerged as a major public health concern affecting 1 in 10 Australian infants. Hospitals waiting times are in excess of 12-months for specialist services. Recent changes in the environment are driving up rates of food allergy but the mechanisms are unclear. Epigenetics is the science of how the environment influences gene behaviour. This fellowship will address the important and urgent question of how modern environments are changing our genes, leading to food allergy.
Allergic disease affects more than one in five Australian children. What foods a mother eats during pregnancy and breastfeeding, as well as when to introduce solid foods to babies, is thought to be critical in reducing the increasing burden of allergies in our Australian community. I hope to use this fellowship to discover what dietary factors put children at risk of developing a food allergy, and ways we can reduce that risk.
Afinity Maturation And Development Of An Anti-inflammatory Monoclonal Antibody
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$387,489.00
Summary
Antibodies are a relatively new class of drugs that directly target molecular mechanisms of disease. Antibody therapies, such as the breast cancer drug Herceptin, have significantly increased our arsenal of effective therapeutics. In collaboration with G2 Therapies, we will use cutting-edge genetic engineering technology to produce fully human antibodies for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis.