About FASI

Our Purpose

FASI exists to change the course of food allergy by uniting science and collaboration—breaking down the silos that hold research back. As a global research institute, we lead the search into the biological roots of food allergy and turn discoveries into better diagnosis, prevention, and treatment to transform the lives of patients and families. Our vision is a world without food allergy.

Families are the reason. Science is the way. The answers are the work.

Born from questions. Built for answers.

FASI grew out of the urgent questions of parents and families living with food allergy. Their children had experienced life-threatening reactions to ordinary foods. Daily life revolved around labels, avoidance, and emergency plans. They also knew how little science could explain about why food allergy begins.

Four of FASI’s co-founders: Ellie Chu, Karen Nanji, Christine Olsen and Lesley Solomon

For one family, that gap became impossible to ignore when their son had a severe reaction to baked milk during a medically supervised food challenge. As he recovered, they searched for better tests and treatments; and again and again, they learned that the field did not yet know enough about the basic biology.

The determination to find answers brought families, philanthropic partners, and scientific leaders together for the first time to create FASI. In 2015, leading researchers convened to examine the gaps. FASI launched with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in 2016, under the scientific leadership of Yale immunologist Ruslan Medzhitov, and became an independent nonprofit in 2021.

That shared resolve became an institutional commitment: bring the strongest science to the questions families need answered. Today, that commitment guides FASI’s internal scientific leaders, its global consortium, and the decisions that move the work forward.

Patients and families are the reason

People living with food allergy set the stakes for our work. Their need for clearer answers, better options, and lasting change keeps our scientific ambition focused on the lives it is meant to improve.

woman researcher looking at laptop computer

We connect discovery to development

We investigate the fundamental biology of food allergy and test promising findings in human biology. Evidence sets the direction and determines which discoveries are ready to advance.

Our internal scientific team brings direction, continuity, and drug-development expertise to a consortium of leading investigators, advisors, and experts across disciplines. We unite complementary strengths around shared scientific questions.

We follow science into the gaps

We pursue promising questions early and build the research capabilities to investigate them. Flexible philanthropic support gives us the freedom and speed to follow opportunities that fall outside traditional grant cycles.

We carry promising work forward. By connecting foundational discovery, human validation, and medicines-focused expertise, we build the evidence that gives strong ideas a path to practical use. This approach has helped move promising ideas from early discovery toward real progress for patients—work that would be difficult to sustain through traditional funding alone.

A decade of discovery
A future beyond food allergy

FASI enters its next decade with a scientific foundation, research technologies, and a global consortium built through ten years of discovery. Our ambition is to put that collective strength to work in ways that change what is possible for people living with food allergy.

The scientific opportunity reaches from understanding why food allergy begins to finding ways to restore lasting tolerance. We will continue investigating what drives reactions and keeps the disease active, while testing promising discoveries in human biology. The goal is to turn deeper understanding into clearer diagnosis, more precise measurement, and new directions for prevention and treatment.

Through FAMA™, our Food Allergy Medicines Accelerator™, we will validate targets, strengthen evidence, and prepare the most compelling opportunities for further therapeutic development. Our internal scientific leaders and collaborators bring the expertise and continuity this work demands.

Our first decade built a foundation. Our next decade must put more of that knowledge to work for patients. The ambition is a cure. FASI is built to pursue it.

Explore Our Model

We work to ensure hope is on the menu.

Food avoidance, emergency plans and rescue medication remain necessary today. They should not define the limits of tomorrow. FASI is building the knowledge needed for better diagnosis, prevention and treatment…and for new ways to change the course of food allergy.

Research in Progress