Podcasts

Food for Thought Podcast Series

Expert opinion on food allergy diagnosis, treatments, and guidelines

In this podcast series, Professor Alexandra Santos leads discussion on food allergy diagnostics and therapies with international experts, including Dr Sharon Chinthrajah, Professor Hugh Sampson, Dr Tina Sindher, Dr Kari Nadeau, Professor Gideon Lack, Professor Douglas Mack, and Dr Aikaterini Anagnostou.

This podcast is intended for Healthcare Professionals only.

Episode 1: Overcoming challenges of integrating oral immunotherapy for food allergy into clinical practice

In Episode 1, Professor Alexandra Santos is joined by Dr Sharon Chinthrajah and Dr Tina Sindher for discussion on the benefits and risks of oral immunotherapy (OIT), and guideline recommendations for OIT in the food allergy setting. Click play to listen to Episode 1 now.

Episode 2: Epitope testing and the basophil activation test (BAT): going beyond food challenge testing

Join Professor Alexandra Santos, Dr Sharon Chinthrajah and Professor Hugh Sampson as they discuss food allergy diagnosis and some of the limitations behind current diagnostic techniques. In addition, they explore features of the ideal diagnostic test and tests that are currently under development. Click play to listen to Episode 2 now.

Episode 3: Strategies for prevention in food allergy

Join Professor Sharon Chinthrajah, with Professor Kari Nadeau and Professor Gideon Lack as they discuss the latest prevention strategies for food allergy, particularly in infants, and the rationale behind skin barrier interventions.

Episode 4: Baked milk and egg ladders

Professor Alexandra Santos is accompanied by Professor Aikaterini Anagnostou and Professor Douglas Mack in discussing the subjects of baked milk and baked egg ladders, with a primary emphasis on potential hidden risks, with an extensive deep dive into the existing body of evidence concerning the use of baked milk and egg ladders for the management of food allergies.

Meet the experts

Professor Alexandra Santos

Dr Alexandra Santos is Associate Professor in Paediatric Allergy at King’s College London, and Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Allergy at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital. The Santos Lab aims to improve the accuracy and safety of food allergy diagnosis and our understanding of the mechanisms of food allergy and oral tolerance in IgE-sensitised children. Alexandra is the Chair of the Board of the Food Allergy Interest Group of European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) and of the upcoming EAACI Food Allergy Guidelines.

Disclosures: Consultancy and/or speaker fees from Thermo Scientific, Nutricia, Infomed, Novartis, Allergy Therapeutics, Buhlmann, as well as research support from Buhlmann and Thermo Fisher Scientific through a collaboration agreement with King's College London.

Dr Sharon Chinthrajah

Dr Sharon Chinthrajah is Director of the Clinical Translational Research Unit of the Sean N Parker Centre for Allergy and Asthma Research (Stanford University), where she leads novel and impactful Phase 1-3 studies in food allergy, asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis.

Disclosures: Dr Chinthrajah has grants from NIAID, CoFAR, Aimmune, DBV Technologies, Astellas, Regeneron, Stanford Maternal and Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI), and FARE. She is an Advisory Board Member at Alladapt Therapeutics, Novartis, Genentech, Sanofi, Allergenis, and Intrommune Therapeutics.

Dr Tina Sindher

Dr Sindher joined the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University in January 2017, and is Director of the Clinical Translational Research Unit. Dr Sindher conducts clinical research trials at the Sean N. Parker Center and the Oral Immunotherapy Clinic at Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH), which is focused on the care of paediatric allergy and immunology patients. Her interests are in food allergy and eosinophilic esophagitis research involving strategies for prevention, diagnostics, and novel therapeutics.

Disclosures: Grants from NIH, Regeneron, DBV Technologies, Aimmune, Novartis, CoFAR, and FARE. She is an Advisory member at Genentech and DBV Technologies.

Professor Hugh Sampson

Professor Hugh A. Sampson is the Kurt Hirschhorn Professor of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York and has over 40 years’ experience in translational research focusing on food allergic disorders and basic immunologic mechanisms responsible for these disorders. His research has been funded continuously by grants from the NIH, including the Principal Investigator for the Consortium for Food Allergy Research. He has authored/co-authored over 550 original articles and 90 book chapters, and co-edited 5 books, primarily on clinical and immunopathogenic aspects of food allergic disorders, and chaired working groups that produced standardised criteria for diagnosing anaphylaxis and conducting double-blind placebo-controlled oral food challenges (Practall Guidelines). Professor Sampson was elected to membership in the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academies in 2003 for his research accomplishments. He is the past president of the American Academy of Asthma, Allergy & Immunology, past Chairman of the Section on Allergy & Immunology of the American Academy of Pediatrics, past Board member of the World Allergy Organization, and has served on the Editorial Boards of five allergy journals. Professor Sampson has trained over 40 post-doctoral allergy/immunology fellows, many of whom are now leaders in the field of food allergy.

Disclosures: Professor Sampson reports consultancy fees from N-Fold, LLC, DBV Technologies, and Siolta Therapeutics; grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); and royalties from Elsevier.

Professor Kari Nadeau

Professor Kari Nadeau is the Naddisy Foundation Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics and, Director of the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University. She is Section Chief in Asthma and Allergy in Pulmonary and Critical Care at Stanford and a pediatrician and practices Allergy, Asthma, Immunology in children and adults. For more than 30 years, she has devoted herself to understanding how environmental and genetic factors affect the risk of developing allergies and asthma, and the molecular mechanisms underlying the asthma and its severity. Professor Nadeau has taught medical students, graduate students, undergraduate students and post docs for over 16 years at Stanford. Her accomplishments to date include over 240 peer-reviewed publications.

Disclosures: Professor Nadeau reports grants from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE); Stock options from IgGenix, Seed Health, ClostraBio, Cour, Alladapt, Clostrabio, and ImmuneID; Director of the World Allergy Organization Center of Excellence for Stanford; Advisor at Cour Pharma; Consultant for Excellergy, Red tree ventures, Before Brands, Alladapt, Cour, Latitude, Regeneron, and IgGenix; Co-founder of Before Brands, Alladapt, Latitude, and IgGenix; National Scientific Committee member at Immune Tolerance Network (ITN), and National Institutes of Health (NIH) clinical research centres; patents include, “Mixed allergen composition and methods for using the same,” “Granulocyte-based methods for detecting and monitoring immune system disorders,” and “Methods and Assays for Detecting and Quantifying Pure Subpopulations of White Blood Cells in Immune System Disorders”.

Professor Gideon Lack

Professor Gideon Lack is Professor of Paediatric Allergy at King’s College London and Head of the Children’s Allergy Clinical Academic Group at King’s Health Partners Institute of Women and Children’s Health at Evelina London, Guy’s & St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. He was co-author on the LEAP (Learning Early About Peanut allergy) study that showed that early consumption of peanuts in atopic infants reduces the development of peanut allergy by >80%, which translated to changes to health policy in the USA and Australia. His research focuses on the prevalence of food allergies in children and the relationship between food allergies, eczema, and asthma. He works on novel immune-modulatory treatments for food allergies and on developing new strategies to prevent the development of allergies and asthma in children and adults.

Disclosures: Professor Lack is a stock shareholder in DBV Technologies, Mission Mighty Me, and serves as a Member of Scientific Advisory Board at DBV Technologies S.A. He received honoraria from EPG Health for participating in a company-sponsored speaker’s bureau.

Professor Douglas Mack

Dr Mack is a Paediatric Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Specialist. Dr Mack is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Paediatrics and McMaster. He is the Principal Investigator for Ontario Paediatric Allergy Research Corporation. He sits on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and is on the Executive for the section of Allergy for the Ontario Medical Association. He is an author of clinical guidelines on the prevention of allergy, epinephrine and anaphylaxis for the CSACI and is the editor of the first North American Manual on Oral Immunotherapy for food. He sits on the editorial board for the Journal of Food Allergy. Dr Mack is co-founder of Halton Paediatric Allergy Clinic where his focus is on Oral Food Immunotherapy.

Disclosures: Consultant and Speaker for ALK, Bausch Health, Aimmune, Medexus. Investigator for DBV and ALK.

Professor Aikaterini Anagnostou

Dr Anagnostou is currently Professor of Pediatrics (Allergy & Immunology) at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. She also serves as the Director of the Food Immunotherapy Program and the co-Director of the Food Allergy Program. Dr Anagnostou is passionate about investigating new and innovative treatments for food allergy. She obtained her PhD from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom and her dissertation focused on two separate trials of Peanut Oral Immunotherapy in children. Her research work was published in The Lancet and received international recognition. Dr Anagnostou has a strong interest in preventing and treating all forms of allergic disease. She is committed to improving the quality of life of allergic patients and their families. 

Disclosures: PI for phase 3 trials of peanut OIT (Aimmune Therapeutics). Consultation fees from ALK, Aimmune Therapeutics and FARE. Advisory Board for DBV Technologies.