Oral Immunotherapy for Food Allergic Patients

Dear Friends and supporters,

The summer is coming to a close, and we are finally experiencing some slightly cooler nights. The Jewish New Year is almost upon us, and it is a good time to update you on some things to look ahead to at the Center for Allergy at the Shamir Medical Center.

A New Tool for Better Diagnosis
First thanks to a generous gift, our center recently received a Phadia 250 system, which will allow us to measure IgE levels to a range of specific allergens. Over the past several years, our research has shown that specific IgE testing can be very useful in diagnosing different food allergies, as part of broader diagnostic strategies. This led us to conclude that an analysis system on site at our center would benefit our ongoing work. With the Phadia 250 on site, we will be able to readily do specific IgE tests directly, helping us refine the approaches for when and how they are best used. Ultimately, we hope to reduce the need for oral food challenges—a procedure that, while considered the gold standard” for diagnosing food allergy, is stressful for patients and families, and is not without risk. We are looking forward to embarking very soon on this project.

Collaborating for the Future
Alongside these diagnostic advances, we are also working with colleagues in Israel and abroad to push the science forward. One particularly exciting project focuses on cow’s milk proteins, which are among the most common triggers of food allergy in children. Together with our partners, we are investigating the allergenicity of specific proteins in cow’s milk, with the ambitious goal of creating functional proteins that are truly hypoallergenic.

This project is still in its early stages, but it represents the kind of innovative research that could transform the lives of countless families. Imagine a world where children with cow’s milk allergy could enjoy safe dairy products without fear of a reaction—that’s the vision driving this collaboration. We look forward to sharing more as the project develops.

Neither of these projects would be possible without the help we receve from supporters like you. Your contributions help us build the tools, foster the collaborations, and maintain the momentum needed to tackle food allergy from every angle: better diagnosis, better treatments, and ultimately, better lives for patients and families.

We are deeply grateful for your partnership, and we are excited about what the future holds. With your continued support, we can keep moving toward a safer, healthier world for children with food allergies.

Warm regards and a shana tova umetuka (A good and sweet new year),

Hello from the Center for Allergy at Shamir Medical Center!

As always, we are delighted to bring you updates on our work, encompassing lab and clinical research, and patient treatment. The past few months have seen new steps forward in our ongoing mission to understand and treat food allergies. So let’s dive in.

First, we’re proud to share that Dr. Moshe Appel, one of our  researchers, participated in the recent European Association of Allergy and Clinical Immunology conference in Athens. During the meeting, Dr. Appel presented a talk on our center’s ongoing research into approaches for diagnosing hazelnut allergy.  Additionally, Dr. Appel also engaged with international colleagues on the topic of food extracts and their interaction with cultured intestinal epithelial cells. This subject is of interest to us as we conduct similar experiments using sterilized stool liquid from patients before and after undergoing oral immunotherapy (OIT) for food allergy. Dr. Appel is now taking this work a step further, investigating how the food extracts and patient-derived samples might work together to influence the gut barrier. The goal? To better understand how successful OIT transforms the immune landscape. Scientific collaboration and cross-pollination at conferences like these often spark new research directions, and we’re excited about where this could lead.

On a different  note, some of our staff have recently participated in educational webinars on the growing role of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace. Spoiler alert: it’s not just for writing emails or generating cat memes. We’re now considering how AI might help us sift through large datasets to identify the most effective allergy testing strategies for patients from diverse backgrounds. Of course, AI doesn’t replace the human touch — we still need our clinical expertise to interpret and validate any computer-generated insights. And we remain absolutely vigilant about patient privacy. AI may be the shiny new tool in the toolbox, but we must be cognizant, in order to utilize it effectively and ethically.

We continue to be humbled by the progress we make and the support you provide. None of this research, experimentation, or innovation would be possible without the generosity of people like you. If you're looking to make a difference with your giving, please consider helping us push the boundaries of allergy diagnosis and treatment even further.

With appreciation and curiosity for what comes next,