Team: Marianne van Hage

The allergic diseases, such as allergic asthma, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, are today one of the most common causes of chronic illnesses and a major public health issue. They substantially reduce well-being since allergen exposure in most cases cannot be avoided.

Aims

Allergic diseases, from molecular mechanisms to new therapeutic strategies

The aim of our research is to increase the knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of allergic disease; identify, characterise and modify allergens, to increase the understanding of how they function in causing disease at a molecular level, to investigate the diagnostic potential of novel disease allergen markers and to develop new strategies for allergy vaccination.

By utilising different molecular biology techniques, new forms of allergens are being produced as candidates for safer and more efficacious allergy vaccination and their mechanism at the cellular level studied in human and in animal models of allergic disease. The close collaboration with the clinics allows clinical features to be related to molecular mechanisms in patients samples. The research is in front line and performed in an integrated basic and clinical scientific environment with successful collaboration with well-established national and international groups in the field of molecular biology, cell biology, biochemistry, immunohistochemistry, epidemiology and genetics. All necessary equipment: molecular biology (e.g. a real-time PCR instrument, equipment for DNA/RNA preparation and analysis, expression of recombinant proteins), immunochemical (e.g. separation, measurements of purity and concentration of allergens), immunological (e.g. ELISA, ELISpot, immunoblotting, immunohistochemistry, ImmunoCAP) and cell biology (cell proliferation assays, FACS,) laboratories as well as excellent animal facilities are available.

Group members