In America alone, 1.7 million people suffer from this allergy, and 100 to 150 people per year die after eating peanuts.
Peanut allergy is one of the most threatening food allergies because of the severity of the associated reactions, and its persistent character.

HAL Allergy, one of Europe’s leading anti-allergy vaccine producers, is conducting research into food allergies to establish whether immunotherapy offers a solution for patients who react severely to the accidental consumption of foods such as peanuts.

Led by Stef Koppelman, who is also affiliated as courtesy professor to the University of Nebraska, and in cooperation with researchers at amongst others the University Medical Centre in Utrecht (UMC), HAL Allergy is looking into how the peanut substances trigger the immune system leading to such severe reactions. The aim is to make it possible to treat the world’s most deadly food allergy with vaccines. At the university of Nebraska, the Food Allergy Research and Resource Program enables technology to detect residual allergens in food products, another approach to protect food allergic consumers.

During a scientific seminar held by HAL Allergy, Dr E. Knol of the UMC outlined the painstaking development of a vaccine for peanut allergy. His team is setting out to precisely identify the locations in the allergens that trigger the immune system. That will make it possible to improve diagnostics and to develop ideas for immunotherapy. They are also investigating which physical aspects of the patients themselves play a role in severe allergic reactions such as these. Research in these two areas could lead to an immunotherapy-based treatment in the future, says Dr Knol.

HAL Allergy was founded fifty years ago. It now employs some 300 people and has establishments and partnerships in sixteen countries. The use of immunotherapy based on anti-allergy vaccines is set to increase for the treatment of allergies in the years to come. Far from fighting the symptoms, this therapy tackles the cause.

For more information: www.hal-allergy.nl