The highly inter-disciplinary EFRAIM project will prospectively investigate the main protective factors in early life influencing thedevelopment of allergies in birth cohorts conducted in allergy protective environments in five European countries. These birth cohorts have been enrolling over 1,000 children and have collected detailed information on the onset of allergic illnesses, objective measures of allergies and a vast amount of information about a number of environmental exposures. Large biobanks with a variety of biological samples have been established. In the EFRAIM project particular attention will be given to the potential role of dietary exposures, lifestyle and other environmental (e.g. microbial) exposures early in life which are causal determinants rather than triggers of the illness. The mechanisms mediating these protective exposures such as the maturation of immune responses, gut colonisation, the mucosal barrier function and the genetic and epigenetic factors interacting with the environmental exposures will be investigated. The knowledge about protective exposures early in life can be turned into the development of preventive strategies. The EFRAIM project will actively address two routes of preventive interventions in animal models and in vitro studies: the development of an allergy protective milk formula and the development of an allergy vaccine. Both approaches are based on knowledge gained in the human studies. The EFRAIM project is expected to produce ground-breaking new insights on protective agents and their mechanisms that can be used to prevent the further development of allergies.

> Erika.Von.Mutius@med.lmu.de
http://www.efraim-online.com/

GA2len objectives in asthma and allergy are

- to enhance the quality and relevance of research and to address all aspects of the disease. - to create a permanent and durable structure that will maximize the scientific contribution of Europe to this area. - to accelerate the application of research results to clinical practice, patients’ needs and policy development. - to promote training and integration between the public and private sector. - to eventually decrease the burden of allergy and asthma throughout Europe.

The network will examine events occurring during intra-uterine life with special focus on the foeto-maternal interface, early life events in the development of allergic sensitisation, the translation of allergic sensitisation and the persistence and aggravation of allergic diseases and asthma. The duration of the project chaired by Professor Paul van Cauwenberge, university of Ghent, is 5 years. Approximately 500 researchers are involved. GA2len, a consortium of leading European research teams is a EU FP6 funded network.

www.ga2len.net

GABRIEL provides an integrated multidisciplinary program of post-genome research. Internationally leading groups will apply knowledge of epidemiology, genetics, genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, statistics, environmental ecology and immunology into the causes of asthma in the European Community. 25 centres  will conduct a four year study funded by the European Commission in the programme “Life sciences, genomics and biotechnology for health”.


www.gabriel-fp6.org
www.gabriel.med.uni-muenchen.de

GALTRAIN partners already have links with each other. Most GALTRAIN fellows will register for a PhD within the institute of a GALTRAIN Partner, and then, following creation of a detailed plan of training units, spend periods within the laboratory of other Partners. The scope of training that GALTRAIN can offer is exceptional, and includes epidemiology, immunology, structural chemistry, animal and human models of allergy and clinical trial design.

www.nottingham.ac.uk

http://www.allergie-lunge.de/