APFED Funded Research/Grant Recipients

2024 HOPE Pilot Grant Awards

David A. Hill, MD, PhD, Department of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania and Division of Allergy and Immunology, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Project: Development of Novel Diagnostics for the Identification of EoE-causal Foods

HOPE Pilot Grant Amount: $100,000 over a 2-year period

Summary: Dr. Hill’s team is engaged in the development of new diagnostics that seek to accurately identify foods that cause EoE. The funded project will study three new minimally invasive blood tests that are designed to identify immune responses to soy, wheat, and egg. If successful, these tests will aid doctors and families in identifying and avoiding causal foods, accelerating the diagnostic and treatment process from years to months.

2024 HOPE APFED/AAAAI Grant Award

Maureen Bauer, M.D.

Children’s Hospital Colorado,
University of Colorado School of Medicine

Hope APFED/AAAAI Grant Award Amount: $140,000 over a 2-year period, co-funded between APFED and AAAAI

Project: Dr. Bauer’s project titled,  “Improving Outcomes and Equity through Targeted Screening for Eosinophilic Esophagitis­­­­ ,” will use the esophageal string test to see how well it can detect EoE in children who have other allergic conditions. Her study will also help determine patient and provider acceptability of using the esophageal string test to screen for EoE.

Patient Impact: This research aims to provide important preliminary data necessary to assess the impact of screening for EoE using the esophageal string test on healthcare cost, esophageal fibrostenosis, and health disparities.

2023 HOPE Pilot Grant Awards

Sagar Bapat, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine
University of California San Francisco

HOPE Pilot Grant Amount: $100,000 over a 2-year period
Project: Dr. Bapat’s research project is “Understanding the role of diet in modulating immune responses in eosinophilic disease” will further explore how our diets affect our immune system. Recent work from Dr. Bapat’s lab has demonstrated that high-fat diets may rewire the immune system in a way that might curb eosinophilic diseases. This research may identify novel ways to treat eosinophilic diseases.

Nurit Azouz, PhD

Assistant Professor, Division of Allergy and Immunology, Center for Inflammation and Tolerance
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

HOPE Pilot Grant Amount: $100,000 over a 2-year period
Project: Dr. Azouz’s project is titled “Exploring the Therapeutic Effects of Aryl Hydro-carbon Receptor Activation in Eosinophilic Esophagitis”. This study will examine how the lining of the esophagus (epithelial) is affected in EoE and will study a pathway that may be able to restore barrier dysfunction, potentially providing therapeutic benefit.

2022 HOPE Pilot Grant Awards

Michael Rosenblum, MD PhD Professor, Department of Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco

HOPE Pilot Grant Amount: $100,000 over a 2-year period

Project: Dr. Rosenblum  research entitled, “ Biology of Th2-interacting fascial fibroblasts in eosinophilic fasciitis”, will examine the cellular and molecular interaction of skin fibroblasts (cells that are part of the skin’s structure) with eosinophils to determine the causes of disease and its relapse. The findings of this research can lead to new therapies and can be applied to other eosinophil-associated diseases in the future. Watch Video About This Research

Fei Li Kuang, MD, PhD Assistant Professor, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

HOPE Pilot Grant Amount: $100,000 over a 2-year period

Project: Dr. Kuang’s project entitled “Role of Human Eosinophils and T cells in EGID” will examine how blood eosinophils in EGIDs differ from those of other eosinophilic diseases, and how T cells in EGIDs differ from those in food allergy. The information from this study will provide the foundation for developing new non-invasive diagnostic tools for EGIDs and other eosinophil-associated diseases.

2021 HOPE Pilot Grant Award

Benjamin L. Wright, MD

Allergist and Clinical Immunologist
Mayo Clinic Arizona and Phoenix Children’s Hospital
Assistant Professor, Mayo Clinic School of Medicine

HOPE Pilot Grant Amount: $50,000 over a 2-year period

Project: Dr. Wright and his team will explore the potential effects of common household detergents on the esophageal mucosal barrier, a specialized tissue that lines the esophagus and protects it from potentially injurious agents. This layer is leaky in patients with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), allowing foods to stimulate inflammation. Dr. Wright’s team will evaluate the effects detergents have on esophageal tissue in vitro and compare the results with samples obtained from EoE subjects and controls. Several novel techniques will be used, including the minimally invasive esophageal string test to collect samples. The goal is to better understand the mechanisms of EoE development and gain a specific understanding of how environmental factors such as detergents may contribute to this process.

Published Results:
Detergent exposure induces epithelial barrier dysfunction and eosinophilic inflammation in the esophagus. 

2020 HOPE Pilot Grant Award

Praveen Akuthota, MD

Assistant Professor of Medicine
UC San Diego Health

HOPE Pilot Grant Amount: $50,000 over a 2-year period

Project: Dr. Akuthota’s project will explore the role of quiescin-sulfhydryl oxidase (QSOX1), an enzyme that influences oxidation and inflammation in different disease states. Based on preliminary data from his lab that supports a role for QSOX1 in the pathogenesis of eosinophil-related diseases, Dr. Akuthota’s team will examine the mechanical properties of QSOX1 and whether interleukin-3 (a protein that induces inflammation) can stimulate QSOX1 release from eosinophils. His team will also measure QSOX1 in human samples from eosinophilic and non-eosinophilic asthma. This research could identify a novel mechanism in the pathophysiology of eosinophilic asthma and has the potential to uncover a unique biomarker of the disease.

2020 APFED/CEGIR II Co-funded Pilot Grant

Paneez Khoury, MD, MHSc

Associate Research Physician
Human Eosinophil Section
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

APFED/CEGIRII Co-funded Pilot Grant Award Amount: APFED is providing $25,000 in funding for 2020 while CEGIR will provide funding for 2020 and 2021.

Project: Dr. Khoury’s project will examine if allergy mediated inflammation causes fibrostenotic changes in the stomach tissue to contribute to commonly experienced EG symptoms, such as bloating and early satiety, and if it causes a slower emptying of stomach contents into the small intestine. This important work will influence the selection of drugs that will be studied in future EG clinical trials.

2020 HOPE APFED/AAAAI Grant Award

David A. Hill, MD, PhD

University of Pennsylvania, Department of Pediatrics
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Division of Allergy and Immunology

Hope APFED/AAAAI Grant Award Amount: $140,000 over a 2-year period, co-funded between APFED and AAAAI

Project: Dr. Hill’s project, titled “Interrogation of Pathogenic T-cell Clonotypes in EoE,” aims to understand how the immune system interacts with food allergens to cause EoE.

Patient Impact:  By expanding our understanding of allergen/immune cell interactions, this work will contribute to identifying new immune targets for drug development. In addition to funding a novel data resource for the field, this work will provide preliminary data that we hope will lead to future NIH-funded research programs focused on EoE pathogenesis.

Published Results:
Conserved IFN Signature between Adult and Pediatric Eosinophilic Esophagitis. 
Peripheral markers of allergen-specific immune activation predict clinical allergy in eosinophilic esophagitis. 

Presentation of Results:

• Dilollo J, Martin E, Spergel JM, Hill DA. Development of an antigen-specific T cell assay to identify food triggers in eosinophilic esophagitis. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 147(2):AB164, Feb. 2021. Oral presentation. AAAAI Annual Meeting. AAAAI Annual Meeting. Virtual. Feb. 2021.
• Ruffner MA, Hu A, Dilollo J, Benocek K, Shows D, Gluck M, Spergel JM, Ziegler SF, Hill DA,Cerosaletti K. Children and adults with eosinophilic esophagitis share a conserved interferon signature. Oral Presentation. FOCIS Annual Meeting. Virtual. Jun 2021.
• Dilollo J, Pratt M, Rodriguez-Lopez EM, Spergel JM, Hill DA. Relative Antigenicity and HLA Locus Restriction of Milk Proteins in Eosinophilic Esophagitis. Oral presentation. Gordon Research Seminar in Food Allergy. Ventura, CA. Jan. 2022 (cancelled due to COVID).

2018 HOPE Pilot Grant Awards

Fei Li Kuang, MD, PhD

Allergy & Clinical Immunology Fellow
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.

HOPE Pilot Grant Amount: $50,000 over a 2-year period

Project:  Dr. Kuang’s project entitled “Effects of Eosinophil Depletion on Pathogenic Lymphocytes in Hyper-eosinophilic Syndrome (HES)/EGID Overlap” will utilize multi-parametric flow cytometry and gene expression sequencing on peripheral blood and gut tissue to determine if eosinophils exert a negative regulatory role on pathogenic lymphocytes.

Patient Impact: This project will provide a better understanding of the relationship between eosinophils and lymphocytes in HES/EGID with the goal of illuminating new research avenues, bringing us closer to improved therapeutics for patients suffering from this chronic disease.

Joshua B. Wechsler, MD

Assistant Professor in Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Attending Physician, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago

HOPE Pilot Grant Amount: $100,000 over a 2-year period

Project:  Dr. Wechsler’s project entitled “Defining Mast Cell Phenotype, Activation Pathways and Cellular Interactions that Drive Chronic Symptoms and Endoscopic Changes in Eosinophilic Esophagitis” will seek to understand the role of esophageal mast cell activation in EoE symptoms, along with endoscopic abnormalities in EoE and the effect of treatment. His work will analyze novel pathways in individual mast cells from a biopsy, to determine factors that drive persistent endoscopic abnormalities. He will also define interactions of mast cells and their mediators with the structural epithelial cell, relevant to what is seen in the biopsy.

Patient Impact: This project will help uncover fundamental aspects of mucosal mast cells signaling and cellular interactions critical to driving clinical phenotype in EoE, which could in turn contribute to novel therapies to improve treatment response.

2018 HOPE APFED/AAAAI Pilot Grant Award

Mirna Chehade, MD, MPH

Mount Sinai Center for Eosinophilic Disorders
Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai

Hope APFED/AAAAI Pilot Grant Award Amount: $140,000 over a 2-year period, co-funded between APFED and AAAAI

Project:  Dr. Chehade’s project entitled “Impact of Proton Pump Inhibitors on the Esophageal Transcriptome in Eosinophilic Esophagitis Subtypes” will research the effects of proton pump inhibitor treatment on the EoE transcriptome in an attempt to identify EoE from PPI-responsive esophageal eosinophilia. Addressing this important issue may provide new insights into the how EoE-associated genes are suppressed with PPI therapy.

Patient Impact:  Identification of transcriptome markers of PPI responsiveness would have a high impact in the clinical setting.

2017 HOPE Pilot Grant Awards

John Garber, MD

Assistant in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School

HOPE Pilot Grant Amount: $100,000 over a 2-year period

Project: Dr. Garber’s project entitled “Determinants of Integrin Signaling in Eosinophilic Esophagitis” seeks to better understand the important questions:  How do eosinophils start to migrate from the blood to the esophagus?  How do protein receptors on the eosinophils interact with the receptors on the cells of the esophagus, to allow them to get into the esophagus, become active, and cause inflammation?  Dr. Garber’s team will study whether MAdCAM-1 (mucosal addressin cell adhesion molecule-1), a protein that has been found in the microvasculature (tiny vessels) of the esophagus in active EoE, promotes recruitment of circulating eosinophils via the α4β7 protein found on eosinophils.  Dr. Garber’s team will also study if CD11 protein on eosinophils interact with the esophageal protein periostin to activate and hold on to eosinophils in the esophagus.

Patient Impact: This research would help us better understand the mechanisms of eosinophil recruitment into the esophagus, which may then lead to development of treatments that stop the migration of eosinophils into the esophagus.

Aaron Kobernick, MD, MPH

Assistant Professor, Allergy and Immunology
Department of Dermatology
University of Utah

HOPE Pilot Grant Amount: $100,000 over a 2-year period

Project: Dr. Kobernick’s project entitled “Detection of eosinophilic inflammation in patients with Eosinophilic Esophagitis by oral administration of Tc-99m Heparin” focuses on finding a noninvasive way to detect and monitor eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE).  Dr. Kobernick’s team has developed a technique where small amounts of a radioactively labeled substance called heparin is swallowed, and binds to the proteins released by eosinophils in the esophagus.  The bound heparin is detected by a camera outside the body—in preliminary data, EoE, but not reflux disease, is associated with this heparin binding in the esophagus and is picked up by the camera.  Dr. Kobernick’s team is focusing on finding the lowest amount of radioactivity that can make this test as safe as possible to use clinically while being sensitive enough to pick up active EoE disease.

Patient Impact: This research shows great promise in the development of a noninvasive method for doctors to examine tissue inflammation caused by eosinophil-associated diseases and monitoring EoE without endoscopy and biopsy.

2016 HOPE APFED/AAAAI Pilot Grant Award

Whitney Stevens, MD, PhD

Instructor in Medicine-Allergy-Immunology
Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University

Hope APFED/AAAAI Pilot Grant Award Amount: $140,000 over a 2-year period, co-funded between APFED and AAAAI

Project: Stevens’ project entitled “The Role of Eosinophils in Aspirin Exacerbated Respiratory Disease Pathogenesis” is a novel and translational study that will help us to better understand what activates eosinophils and recruits them into tissues while also shedding light on their role in fibrin deposition that results in scarring of tissues. Aspirin Exacerbated Respiratory Disease (AERD) is used as a model for studying these processes further because of a very robust eosinophil response in this disease state.

Patient Impact: Findings from this study are expected to improve our understanding of eosinophil pathobiology and may help lead to the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for AERD and other eosinophil-associated disorders.

2016 HOPE Pilot Grant Award

Leah Kottyan, PhD

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology

HOPE Pilot Grant Amount: $100,000 over a 2-year period

Project: Dr. Kottyan’s project entitled “Mechanisms of Genetic Risk at 2p23 in Eosinophilic Esophagitis” looks to provide a greater understanding of the biochemical mechanisms driving increased risk of EoE in the context of CAPN14 expression and function.

Patient Impact: This project seeks to make real progress towards a global understanding of the functional genomic, biochemical, inflammatory, and interactive mechanisms that increase the risk of EoE. Uncovering the fundamental mechanisms of EoE pathogenesis could have broad scientific and clinical implications.

2015 Hope APFED/ARTrust™ Pilot Grant Award

Antonella Cianferoni, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Hope APFED/ARTrust™ Pilot Grant Award Amount: $140,000 over a 2-year period, co-funded between APFED and ARTrust™

Project: Dr. Cianferoni’s project entitled “Genotype Phenotype Correlation in Eosinophilic Esophagitis” will help us better understand genetic variations in the development of EoE, and the important role that thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), a protein that promotes allergic inflammation, plays in the process.

Patient Impact: This research could potentially lead to a better understanding of the relationship between TSLP and two other regulator proteins (EMSY and CAPN14).

2015 HOPE Pilot Research Grant

APFED is proud to support the following HOPE Pilot Research Grant in 2015. Congratulations to Dr. Ting Wen for his grant-winning proposal. We look forward to his valuable contribution to eosinophilic disease research.

Ting Wen, Phd

Instructor of Pediatrics
Research Instructor in Pediatrics
Division of Allergy and Immunology
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Burnet Campus

HOPE Pilot Grant Amount: $100,000 over a 2-year period

Project: Dr. Wen’s project entitled “Defining Esophageal Lymphocyte Phenotype and Function in Eosinophilic Esophagitis” seeks to provide a greater understanding of the heterogeneity of human intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) and their functionality in EoE.

Patient Impact: The knowledge gained through this research could advance our understanding of the mechanisms of the enigmatic human IEL population, as well as EoE pathogenesis.

2014 Hope APFED/ARTrust™ Pilot Grant Award

Michiko K. Oyoshi, PhD

Assistant Professor

Boston Children’s Hospital

Hope APFED/ARTrust™ Pilot Grant Award Amount: $140,000 over a 2-year period, co-funded between APFED and ARTrust™

Project: “Mechanisms of Eosinophil Recruitment to Esophagitis Driven by Cutaneous Sensitization”Dr. Oyoshi’s research will focus on an innovative approach to define the underlying mechanism for the development of eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE)

Patient Impact: A better understand the role of eosinophils and their products, and how these play a part in EoE could lead to new treatments for the disease.

2014 HOPE Pilot Research Grant

Joanne Masterson, PhD

Instructor of Pediatrics
Gastrointestinal Eosinophilic Diseases Program
Digestive Health Institute
Children’s Hospital Colorado
Mucosal Inflammation Program
University of Colorado School of Medicine

HOPE Pilot Grant Amount: $50,000 for a 1-year period

Project: HIF signaling and mucosal healing in EoE

Dr. Masterson’s research will provide a greater understanding of the signaling pathway of certain cells involved with EoE as they relate to inflammation caused by oxygen deficiency in cells and tissue. Her research will help determine whether or not this signaling mediates a critical link between conditions that cause inflammation and how the mucosal tissue heals after it is damaged by EoE.

Patient Impact: Understanding the molecular mechanisms of HIF signaling pathway in EoE may lead to new ways to treat the disease.

Brad Shepherd M.D. Vanderbilt University “Eosinophilic Esophagitis: Dilate or Medicate?”

Joanne Masterson, PhD University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine “Eosinophilic ileitis and tissue remodeling in the SAMP1/SkuSic mouse strain”

Anup Patel, MD Stanford University “Eosinophils Can Induce T cell Activation in Eosinophilic Esophagitis”

Eitan Rubenstein, MD University of California, San “Anti-Siglee-F Antibody Reduces Eosinophilic Inflammation in a Mouse Model of Eosinophilic Esophagitis”
2010
Julie Caldwell, PhD Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center “Microarray Analysis of Eosinophilic Gastritis Identifies a Strong Link with Cadherin-like 26 Overexpression”
2011
Joseph Sherill PhD Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center “Dysregulation of the Desmosomal Cadherin Desmoglein-l in Eosinophilic Esophagitis”

EunJin Lim PhD Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center “Epigenetic regulation of the IL-13-induced human eotaxin-3 gene by CBP mediated histone-3 acetylation”

Letters of Appreciation – Researchers express gratitude for grants received through APFED’s Hope on the Horizon Research Fund.