APFED Announces Two 2024 HOPE Pilot Grant Award Recipients

(Atlanta, GA)— The American Partnership for Eosinophilic Disorders (APFED) is proud to announce that, thanks to the generosity of donors, the organization has awarded two 2024 HOPE Pilot Grant Awards. This year’s grant recipients are David A. Hill, MD, PhD, and Marie-Pier Tetreault, PhD. Drs. Hill and Tetreault will each receive $100,000 from APFED for a two-year project. The grant recipients were announced on Friday, July 12 at APFED’s EOS Connection Patient Education Conference on Eosinophil-Associated Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland.

Grant recipient Dr. David Hill of the Department of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, received funding for his project entitled, “Development of Novel Diagnostics for the Identification of EoE-causal Foods.”

Dr. Hill’s team has been engaged in the development of new diagnostics that seek to accurately identify foods that cause eosinophilic esophagitis (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.

“This work will improve our understanding of allergen-specific T cell responses in patients with EoE while providing critical data for the next generation of EoE diagnostic tools,” shared Dr. Hill.  “The findings have the potential to fundamentally change the clinical management of EoE and positively impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients living with this debilitating eosinophilic disorder.”

The other recipient of APFED’s HOPE Pilot Grant Award is Dr. Marie-Pier Tetreault, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, who received funding for her project entitled, “Investigating Treatment Effects on Molecular Targets of Basal Cell Hyperplasia/Adaptive Differentiation for Advanced Personalized Therapies in Eosinophilic Esophagitis.”

Dr. Tetreault’s project aims to explore how certain key proteins involved in cell development influence the severity and treatment response of EoE. Specifically, her research seeks to understand the regulatory mechanisms of basal cell hyperplasia persistence after treatment. By better understanding these processes, her team hopes to develop new treatments that could more effectively manage symptoms and improve outcomes for patients with this challenging condition.

“My team is enthusiastic about the opportunity to contribute significantly to the diagnostics and treatment of EoE through the APFED Hope 2024 funding,” shared Dr. Tetreault. “We believe our findings will lead to novel treatment strategies, providing much-needed relief to those afflicted by this complex condition.”

Recipients of APFED’s HOPE Pilot Grant Award are chosen through a competitive peer-review process, which is how premier scientific funding agencies like the National Institutes of Health ensure top-level research in the field is funded. The grant was established to support researchers as they initiate new, innovative projects relevant to eosinophil-associated diseases that are likely to be impactful.

An ad-hoc committee of volunteer peer reviewers, experts in the field of eosinophil-associated disease research, review and score each proposal APFED receives for funding consideration. This rigorous process helps APFED to identify the best research that will have the biggest impact to best to direct donor dollars.

APFED is grateful for donors and community fundraisers that have supported the HOPE on the Horizon Research Grant Program. The advances toward a better understanding of eosinophil-associated diseases, non-invasive and accurate diagnostics, and therapeutic targets are not possible without the generosity of donations to this program.

About the American Partnership for Eosinophilic Disorders (APFED)

The American Partnership for Eosinophilic Disorders (APFED) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to passionately embrace, support, and improve the lives of patients and families affected by eosinophil-associated diseases through education and awareness, research, support, and advocacy. www.apfed.org