Thanks To the National Institutes of Health (CoFAR) and Voters for EGIDs at Chase Community Giving

During National Eosinophil Awareness Week it was stated that the National Intstitutes of Health (NIH) gave $0 a year in funding toward Eosinophil research.  I am happy to say, that is no longer the case.  In a press  release on Wednesday, July 14, NIH Expands Food Allergy Research Program Consortium of Food Allergy Research Renewed With a Five-Year, $29.9 Million Grant, NIH announced the Consortium of Food Allergy Research (CoFAR) will be funded for 5 more years.  CoFAR has been working on ways to treat and prevent food allergies since 2005.  It will now broaden it's scope to include genetic causes of food allergy and studies of food allergy associated with EGIDs, mostly EE (EoE).

While food allergies are associated with the production of immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies as a response to a food which may lead to symptoms anywhere from hives to anaphylaxis, EGIDs can also be associated with IgE, but are also associated with stomach pain, vomiting, chest pain, and trouble swallowing.  There is also inflammation, irritation and a large number of eosinophils in the esophagus.


“Key research on eosinophils has confirmed the important role they play in inflammatory diseases of the upper GI tract,” says Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D., director of NIDDK, co-sponsor of CoFAR. “We hope that the new genetic studies involving EGIDs will help researchers identify and develop novel treatments.”

CoFAR is currently conducting clinical trials with food allergies. One is with drops containing a gradually increasing amount of peanut protein that is placed under the patients tongue, the next is a gradually increasing peanut protein that is given in suppository form and the last is a gradually increasing amount of egg protein given by mouth.

“We are pleased to continue our support of CoFAR, NIAID’s major program dedicated to exploring the causes of food allergy and developing new treatment and prevention strategies,” says Daniel Rotrosen, M.D., director of the Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation at NIAID. “By expanding CoFAR’s research goals to include studies of the genetic components of food allergy, and broadening the research to include food allergy-associated diseases like EoE, we expect that its work will continue to increase our understanding of how food elicits an allergic reaction in certain people.”

The EGID studies will be taking place at Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center Hospital, University of Colorado Denver and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

This is truly exciting news in the world of EGIDs!!  Hopefully this will be a step toward having a treatment that will allow our children to eat again and not have to go through such invasive testing just to see what foods are "safe" for them.  Thank you NIH and CoFAR!

Other great news for EGIDs this week...APFED, CURED and Kids with Food Allergies all came in the top 200 for the Chase Community Giving Charity fundraising competition, winning EACH of the charities $20,000.  Thank you to everyone that voted!