Allergy

 

People can become allergic to natural, harmless substances in the diet or inhaled air. If this occurs they will develop harmful inflammatory responses to subsequent exposure.

 

The symptoms of food allergy can be itching, swelling, nausea and diarrhoea, and for allergy to inhaled substances they can be asthma attacks and the symptoms of hay fever. Serious allergies can cause anaphylactic shock, which is a sudden aggressive and potentially life-threatening reaction.

 

• Allergies to food and inhaled substances have more than doubled over the last few decades.
• About six per cent of children develop food allergy and 30 per cent develop respiratory allergy.
• The most common inhalant allergies are to house dust mites, grass pollen and cats. The common food allergies are to milk, egg, soy, peanuts and tree nuts. Many children grow out of the milk and egg allergies in infancy while allergy to nuts tends to persist especially for highly allergic children.

Our research
Our allergen studies are focused on house dust mite allergy, the most important source of allergy worldwide and in Australia, and cats, the second most important indoor allergen that causes asthma.  We have identified and characterised a new cat allergen called BASE which was isolated from cat saliva.  This allergen is important for the development of new therapies for those who are cat allergic.  We are now working on identifying and characterising other cat allergens - research has suggested there are at least 10 important cat allergens - to determine their relative importance compared to known cat allergens.

 

Our house dust mite research is looking at the two most important species of house dust mites as well as the interaction between house dust mites and their distant relatives, the scabies mites.