Food allergy is a disease of global impact associated with life-threatening reactions, increasing prevalence,and limited options for treatment and prevention. Despite significant research advances, many remainingquestions must be addressed before global implementation of impactful therapeutic and prevention options forpatients affected by food allergy can be realized. The Consortium for Food Allergy Research (CoFAR) wasformed to address these unresolved questions through its collaborative research network of Clinical ResearchUnits (CRU) with experience and expertise in food allergy clinical trials. To this end, the Arkansas Center forFood Allergy Research (ArCOFAR) builds on a >30 year foundation of excellence, expertise, and leadershipin food allergy and is prepared to immediately address the overarching program goals of CoFAR. TheArCOFAR site is ideally-positioned to function as a CoFAR CRU through contribution of our extensive researchexperience and by capitalizing on our population's unique geographic and patient demographic characteristics.Our efforts will be directed by the central hypothesis that ArCOFAR will enable the participation of diversegroups of food allergic individuals in expertly designed, innovative clinical trials of the highest qualityand scientific value. Our overarching goal is to provide a unique research platform to measurably improvethe lives of children and adults with food allergy. This goal will be accomplished by the design andimplementation of innovative clinical studies and therapeutic trials via high-quality, high-impact researchcollaboration. Our hypothesis will be tested by executing four specific aims: 1) Leverage established expertisein food allergy research as a platform to expand clinical trials development in immunotherapeutics throughintegrated research efforts with other CoFAR CRUs; 2) Apply institutional and community resources to expandArCOFAR CRU capacity for population-based research in food allergy, including participation in birth cohortand longitudinal outcome studies; 3) Link current inter- and intra-institutional resources to broaden the scope ofclinical research participation to include a more diverse population of food allergic patients; 4) Promote careerdevelopment of new and early career food allergy researchers through active recruiting and mentoring of newfaculty and linking established programmatic and network resources. In addition, our cutting-edge clinical trialof walnut oral immunotherapy will address an unmet need in management of tree nut allergy. Further,ArCOFAR's multi-disciplinary team with established expertise and international leadership in food allergyclinical trials, will expand clinical research through the development and testing of novel immunotherapeuticsand implementation of cohort studies, while providing mentoring and career development opportunities to earlyand new career investigators. The outcome of this proposal will be to improve the health of children and adultswith food allergy in Arkansas and beyond while advancing the mission of CoFAR to fundamentally change thefield of food allergy.
Arkansas Center For Food Allergy Research (arcofar)
Objective
Investigators
Jones, Stacie M
Institution
Arkansas Children's Hospital
Start date
2017
End date
2024
Funding Source
Project number
1UM1AI130781-01
Categories
Commodities