Dad playing with his kids

Blog — August 2022

Eating Without Fear

Wouldn’t it be remarkable to sit down at a restaurant or send your child off to a party and not worry about what anyone was about to eat? We hear you. And we’re doing something about it.

As any adult connected to a child with food allergies knows, living with this condition is extremely difficult to navigate. Common and seemingly harmless foods — nuts, fruits, legumes, eggs, dairy products — can spark serious and life-threatening reactions.

The numbers tell the story:

 

  • 85 million Americans live with food allergies and intolerances
  • 32 million Americans have life-threatening allergies
  • 10% of adults have food allergies with nearly half developing them as an adult – an increase of 6% over the past decade
  • 377% more people sought treatment for severe allergic reactions between 2007 and 2016
  • 200,000 trips to the emergency room each year involve extreme food allergy reactions in the U.S.
  • 150-200 deaths from exposure occur each year in the U.S.

Translational Science: Hope vs Fear

But we at The Food Allergy Science Initiative (FASI) are providing hope. Our goal is to eliminate that fear because we believe there is a cure to food allergies.

Through our work, we have uncovered a major new theory and research direction – the role of the nervous system in food allergies. Our world-renowned scientific experts from highly respected institutions have created an entirely new field of translational research that is transforming how we diagnose, treat and prevent food allergies.

In the last six years FASI’s world-renowned scientific experts have totally disrupted what scientists thought they knew about food allergies.

To solve food allergies, FASI’s new research field brings together experts not only in immunology, but also in neurology, cell biology, the microbiome and other arenas.

Our successes using this unique translational model of science have already led to significant breakthroughs in understanding why food allergies exist and we have engaged with biotech and pharmaceutical companies to achieve our ultimate goal of finding a cure. And that would mean everyone could eat without fear.

 

FASI is making incredible strides every day towards finding a cure for food allergies, but we need your help! Whether you’d like to join our game-changing team of investigators or help fund our groundbreaking food allergy research, we want to hear from you.