Mount Sinai and AllerGenis partner on allergy diagnostics development
26 Nov 2018 --- A collaboration agreement between Mount Sinai Health Systems and AllerGenis LLC aims to develop and commercialize improved food allergy detection and patient management technology, that will provide both clinicians and patients with better insight and information. The first product of the collaboration will be a peanut allergy assay, available in the fall of 2019, followed by a series of assays for other common food allergies like milk, nuts, egg and shellfish.
With the use of Mount Sinai’s proprietary epitope mapping platform, AllerGenis can develop new precision diagnostics for clinicians treating patients with food allergies. Epitope mapping is the process of identifying the binding site of an antibody on its target antigen and it is crucial for the development of this new level of diagnostics.
Jim Garner, CEO and board member of AllerGenis says, “We are pleased to partner with Mount Sinai on this transformational new diagnostic and further improve the lives of patients living with food allergies. The information produced by epitope mapping provides the greatest precision for food allergy assessment, with the capacity to offer definitive diagnostic, prognostic and, in the near term, predictive results reporting.”
The epitope mapping platform was created based on the immunologic research of Hugh Sampson, MD, Director Emeritus of the Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
The platform subdivides protein allergens into smaller peptides, called epitopes, and measures the reactivity of a patient's antibody levels to these epitopes. Each patient will have a unique epitope reactivity signature.
AllerGenis is building a database of human epitope signatures, which will aid clinicians to better assess and manage patients with food allergies.
“AllerGenis' diagnostic technology is expected to expand our ability to accurately diagnose patients with food allergies and should markedly decrease misdiagnosis,” says Dr. Sampson.
“Moreover, it should greatly narrow down the number of people who would have to submit to an oral food challenge, which can potentially be extremely risky for food allergy patients,” he adds.
Erik Lium, Ph.D., Executive Vice President of Mount Sinai Innovation Partners says he is pleased with the partnership and its potential to “ alleviate highly detrimental allergic reactions in both children and adults.”
Statistics form Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE) says that about 30 percent of children with food allergies are allergic to more than one food and that up to 15 million Americans have food allergies, including 5.9 million children under age 18.
According to a new survey, released by the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA), in partnership with Allergy UK (AUK) and the Anaphylaxis Campaign (AC), over half of young people with a food allergy or intolerance have avoided eating out in the last six months due to their condition.
Additionally, a recent study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, warns that children with known skin, food and respiratory allergies should be screened for an emerging, chronic food allergy called eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). Pediatric allergists who analyzed a group of children from birth to adolescence say that EoE should be considered a later component of the “allergic march” – the natural progression in which many children develop a series of allergies.
While, on the positive side, earlier this month medical researchers developed a new treatment for protection against accidental exposure to peanut. Although the treatment is not a “quick fix,” the researchers note their study results show it is possible for some people with peanut allergy to protect themselves from accidental ingestion by building up their tolerance to peanut over time.
