Food allergies are an ever increasing problem in our world. And the problem can be life-threatening, and certainly life-changing for as many as 11% of our population. This is why I wanted to bring on the program a world leader on the topic of food allergy who could explain to us exactly what food allergies are all about in terms of their causation, their increasing prevalence, how to handle them on a day-to-day basis, and what the future looks like in terms of developing therapies.
Our program today is with Kari Nadeau, MD, PhD, author of the terrific book The End of Food Allergy.
Dr. Nadeau is a Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, and Director of the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University. She is Section Chief in Asthma and Allergy in Pulmonary and Critical Care at Stanford. She is a pediatrician and practices Allergy, Asthma, Immunology in both children and adults.
Dr. Nadeau received her MD and PhD from Harvard Medical School. She completed a residency in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and a clinical fellowship in asthma and immunology at Stanford and at University of California, San Francisco. She has overseen more than 40 clinical trials and enrolled more than 2,000 patients in allergy studies. Her accomplishments to date include over 240 peer-reviewed publications.
Her work has changed the lives of many who, for the first time in their lives, are able to control life-threatening food allergies. These impacts have and will continue to help scientists and physicians in research and patient care.
For more than 30 years, she has devoted herself to understanding how environmental and genetic factors affect the risk of developing allergies and asthma, and the molecular mechanisms underlying the diseases. As one of the nation’s foremost experts in adult and pediatric allergy and asthma, her research is laying the groundwork for a variety of potential future therapies to prevent and cure allergies and asthma. Additionally, Dr. Nadeau has worked in the Central Valley to focus on community outreach and education since 2009. Dr. Nadeau has a good relationship with key stakeholders and policy makers in the Central Valley and her research has helped enact legislation to mitigate pollution exposure. She leads and collaborates with others in the area of global climate change, and to mentor others in order to make transformative changes in patients' lives in allergy and asthma, especially in the underserved communities, through innovation and discovery.
Over the past decades, Dr. Nadeau has started four companies dealing with food allergy and has seven patents as the inventor.
Dr. Nadeau’s research on both the clinical and basic science levels has recently been popularized in the lay press and media, with the New York Times, NPR, Today Show, NBC Nightly News (national), CNN, San Francisco Chronicles, podcasts, and so many more media outlets. These media events and her publication record reflect the huge impact her research is making in the field of allergy and immunology. If past is prologue, Dr. Nadeau has had and will continue to have a promising research career in store for herself and those she mentors.
I’m certain you will all gain a much more encompassing view on food allergies with today’s interview.
