AAFA awards grant for studying allergens’ effect on lungs

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America has named Vikas Anathy, PhD, as its 2014 recipient of the Sheldon C. Siegel Investigator Grant Award for research on better understanding of how allergens affect the lungs.

The award provides $20,000 annually for 2 years for research projects that the NIH rates highly but is unable to fund, according to a press release.

Anathy, assistant professor, department of pathology, University of Vermont, submitted a research proposal to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) titled “Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) Stress Signaling in Allergen-Induced Airway Remodeling.”

“Long-term repeated exposure to allergens can trigger a cycle of repair and remodeling in the lungs leading to stiffness of the lungs and respiratory failure,” Anathy said in the release. “We have discovered that allergens generate a stress response in a specialized structure inside lung cells and this research … will help me to investigate the contribution of allergens to the stress response, and to explore the potential drugs to reverse the stiffness of the lung.”

Cary Sennett

“AAFA is committed to research that can lead to improved treatments — and eventually a cure — for people with asthma and allergies,” Cary Sennett, MD, PhD, FACP, president and chief executive officer of AAFA, said in the release. “We are delighted to add Dr. Anathy to the list of young investigators … whose creative work moves us, every year, closer to that.”