Detail

Keywords

Allergy and Immunology; Animal models; Asthma; Biocompatible Materials; Biomimetic Materials

Research group(s)

• Experimental Allergy Laboratory
  Head: Michelle Epstein
  Research Area: The experimental allergy laboratory focuses on the elucidation of the basic mechanisms underlying the initiation and perpetuation of allergic disease. We use experimental models of allergy such as allergic asthma, food allergy and response to foreign materials to address disease susceptibility, the factors governing disease severity, chronicity and predictability of allergenicity and for drug discovery.
  Members:
  Michelle Epstein

Research interests

The experimental allergy laboratory focuses on elucidating the basic mechanisms underlying the initiation and perpetuation of allergic disease. We use experimental models of allergy such as allergic asthma, food allergy and response to foreign materials to address disease susceptibility, the factors governing disease severity, chronicity and predictability of allergenicity and for drug discovery.

Techniques, methods & infrastructure

Cellular immunology, experimental animal models for the study of allergic disease, asthma and biomaterials.

Grants

• Allergenicity Prediction Toolbox for novel foods (2022)
  Source of Funding: EU, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
  Principal Investigator
• AN INNOVATIVE ANALYTICAL PLATFORM TO INVESTIGATE THE EFFECT AND TOXICITY OF MICRO AND NANO PLASTICS COMBINED WITH ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINANTS ON THE RISK OF ALLERGIC DISEASE IN PRECLINICAL AND CLINICAL (2021)
  Source of Funding: EU, SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Health, demographic change and well-being
  Principal Investigator
• SUStainable INsect CHAIN (2020)
  Source of Funding: EU, SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy
  Principal Investigator
• FoodEnTwin Twinning of research activities for the frontier research in the fields of food, nutrition and environmental ‘omics (2018)
  Source of Funding: EU, H2020
  Principal Investigator
• ELASTISLET Tailored Elastin-like Recombinamers as Advanced Systems for Cell Therapies in Diabetes Mellitus: a Synthetic Biology Approach towards a Bioeffective and Immunoisolated Biosimilar Islet/Cell Niche (2015)
  Source of Funding: EU, H2020
  Principal Investigator

Selected publications

1. Lake, I.R. et al., 2016. Climate Change and Future Pollen Allergy in Europe. Environmental Health Perspectives, 125(3).
2. Riba, M. et al., 2016. Revealing the acute asthma ignorome: characterization and validation of uninvestigated gene networks. Scientific Reports, 6(1)
3. Hamaoui-Laguel, L. et al., 2015. Effects of climate change and seed dispersal on airborne ragweed pollen loads in Europe. Nature Climate Change, 5(8), pp.766-771
4. Schliehe, C. et al., 2014. The methyltransferase Setdb2 mediates virus-induced susceptibility to bacterial superinfection. Nature Immunology, 16(1), pp.67-74
5. Kazemi, S., Danisman, E. and Epstein, M.M. (2023) ‘Animal Models for the Study of Food Allergies’, Current Protocols, 3(3). Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cpz1.685.