Central Biorepository Spotlight: Food Allergy

Investigating Biomarkers and Mechanisms of Food Anaphylaxis (FAB)

The Investigating Biomarkers and Mechanisms of Food Anaphylaxis (FAB) is an active study of the Central Biorepository, a unit of the University of Michigan Medical School Office of Research, which facilitates discovery and improves healthcare outcomes by providing high-quality, highly annotated biospecimens donated for basic, clinical, and translational research.

The unit receives biospecimens and data from U-M contributors and collaborators across a spectrum of medical research. These samples, annotated with clinical and research data, are accessible to members of the U-M research enterprise.

Types of Biospecimens

• Blood (White Cells, RNA-Stabilized, and Plasma Components)
• Saliva
• Urine
• Stool

Population

Subjects undergoing oral food challenges for food anaphylaxis in the food allergy clinic over age 6. Both reactors and non-reactors are enrolled.

Access

The Central Biorepository enables access to thousands of FAB biospecimens from Michigan Medicine patients and offers secure linkage to laboratory and clinical data offered by the Data Office.

Get started:

• Search the Food Allergy cohort on the self-serve tool, DataDirect.
• Complete and submit a CBR Use Proposal Form available on research.medicine.umich.edu/biorepository and send to CBR.requests@umich.edu.
• With IRB and oversight committee approval, datasets can be downloaded

“Current biomarkers of food allergy, such as skin and blood food IgE testing, have a false positive rate as poor as 50%. Oral food challenges are the gold standard for food allergy, but these are costly, risky, and cumbersome. This study seeks to help our food allergy patients by developing other ways of evaluating food allergy without the need for a food challenge.” - Charles Schuler, M.D., Assistant Professor Allergy and Immunology, Internal Medicine

Investigating Biomarkers and Mechanisms of Food Anaphylaxis (FAB)

The Food Allergy Biomarkers project collects high-quality specimens taken just before and after oral food challenges, the criterion standard for food allergy. These samples are designed to facilitate the identification of noninvasive, accurate biomarkers of food allergy.

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