Food Allergy Medicines Accelerator™
David Altshuler, M.D., Ph.D.
FASI Co-Founder & SAB Member
Former Chief Scientific Officer, Vertex Pharmaceuticals
A continuum from discovery to impact
The next advance starts at the source. FASI’s research investigates the immune system, nervous system, gut, skin, microbiome, food chemistry, and the signals that can turn nourishment into an allergic response. That work continues to reveal the biology of food allergy and new opportunities to change its course.
FAMA carries that science forward, pairing continuous foundational discovery with the expertise to evaluate and prepare promising findings for therapeutic development. Our ambition is to pursue approaches that address the disease at its biological roots, with the potential to work across food allergens.
Bridging the early development gap
The work is early and the stakes are high. The path from discovery to an approved treatment is long. Academic research reveals important biology, but many promising discoveries stall before biotechnology or pharmaceutical partners are ready to develop them. These discoveries often need stronger evidence, better tools, a stronger intellectual property position, and a clearer path to patients.
FAMA brings scientific leadership and medicine development expertise to this work, preparing the strongest opportunities to advance. Biotechnology and pharmaceutical partners can then bring the scale, capital, and infrastructure required for later development.
This early work is essential to carrying promising science beyond the laboratory. By addressing the questions that can hold development back, FAMA advances the opportunities that may ultimately give patients and families better options.
How FAMA Works
We build the evidence to advance the most promising discoveries.
01
Reduce risk early
We evaluate each opportunity against clear criteria: biological strength, evidence in human data, a measurable effect on the biology driving the disease, and a credible path to intervention. Early validation lets us direct deeper investment toward the strongest ideas before development costs rise.
02
Prepare programs for partnership
Because therapeutic development ultimately requires collaboration, FASI partners to build the scientific and strategic case needed to move an opportunity forward with confidence. Depending on the program, this may include early evidence that an approach works, confirmation of its biological target, intellectual protection for the discovery, ways to measure treatment response, and preparation for clinical development and partnership.
03
Establish the right path forward
Patients come first. The science decides when an opportunity is ready to move forward—not a calendar, not a shareholder deadline. We choose whatever partner and structure gets each discovery to patients fastest: industry partnership, licensing, or building something new around it. This is only possible because of philanthropic support, which gives us the freedom to move at the pace the science demands.
What FAMA brings together
Scientific leadership working side by side
FAMA unites FASI’s internal leaders and its global research consortium around shared therapeutic opportunities.
Internal drug development expertise
Our team brings professional experience in early-stage drug discovery, target validation, development strategy, and partnership planning. We work side by side with investigators to evaluate evidence and direct the next stage.
World-class food allergy science
FASI investigators unite expertise in immunology, neuroscience, gastroenterology, microbiome science, chemistry, computational biology, and clinical research to investigate food allergy across disciplines.
Advanced tools and technologies
To examine the biology in greater detail, FAMA can draw on human samples, single-cell immune profiling, high-resolution antibody analysis, microbiome characterization, cell-culture systems, animal models, protein and small-molecule engineering, and neuroimmune research tools.
Strategic partners
We connect academic investigators, contract research organizations, scientific advisors, biotechnology and pharmaceutical partners, foundations, and philanthropic supporters around shared opportunities.
