A team of Virginia Commonwealth University researchers has received a $7.3 million grant to study asthma and allergic disease from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Allergic disease is the sixth leading cause of chronic disease in the United States and, while various treatments have been developed to control allergy, no cure has been found.

The five-year project brings together four departments at VCU in an interdisciplinary approach to the problem. "The collaborative nature of this center aims to create synergy between the various investigators and departments involved, and thereby facilitate a greater understanding of asthma and allergic diseases than could be achieved by each investigator working independently," said principal investigator Lawrence B. Schwartz, chair of the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy & Immunology at the VCU medical school.

There are four components to the study. In one project the team hopes to better understand how people with allergies can be desensitized. A second project aims to dissect the molecular pathways involved in allergic inflammation. A third will examine how the production of the allergy-causing antibody, IgE, is regulated, which may possibly lead to treatments that reduce its production. A fourth examines a newly described lipid mediator of allergic inflammation. Agents that block this mediator have potential benefit to people with allergic conditions. Read more.