$1 million toward improving how we diagnose and treat food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome (FPIES)

Published

Wednesday, July 3, 2024 - 4:00 PM

Food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome (FPIES) is a delayed (non-IgE mediated) food allergy most commonly present in infants and children.

Those with FPIES experience repetitive and profuse vomiting that typically starts 1-4 hours after eating a certain food. Some infants with FPIES may develop diarrhoea and become floppy, pale and cold.

FPIES is currently under researched and poorly understood. There is no biomarker to diagnose FPIES. Therefore, cases are difficult to identify because reactions can often look like symptoms of an infection rather than an allergic reaction.

Dr Peter Hsu, a CFAR Associate Investigator and Paediatric Allergist and Immunologist based at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, has been awarded a shared international $1 million grant from leading non-profit organisation, FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education).

The research project aims to investigate the specific types of immune cells involved in FPIES reaction to potentially improve diagnosis and treatment.

“FPIES is a condition in children that is very poorly understood, and research is much needed in this area,” said Dr Hsu.

“The grant proposal aims to identify new mechanisms of FPIES using next generation multi-omic approach to pinpoint specific immune cells involved. This could lead to the development of biomarkers for better diagnosis and monitoring.”

Acknowledgements

Dr Hsu is an Associate Investigator at the Centre for Food Allergy Research and a Food Allergy Stream Advisory Group member for the National Allergy Centre of Excellence. Both are hosted at Murdoch Children's Research Institute.

This grant was shared with Dr Marta Vazquez-Ortiz from the Imperial College London in the UK. View the FARE media release.

Read more on Kids Research website.