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Healthy lungs help you to breathe better. This means you can sleep better, as well as play sports, run and walk without being short winded.
People living with asthma, their carers, clinicians and policymakers are the end-users of research and need research that address their individual healthcare needs. We aimed to understand the research priorities of end-users of asthma research.
The way the immune system operates differs between males and females. This is due to both differential expression of immune-related genes from the sex chromosomes as well as the immune modulatory properties of sex hormones. Together, these effects contribute to a skewed prevalence of disease and disease course between males and females, including allergic-, infectious-, autoimmune-, and cancerous disease.
Asthma is among the commonest noncommunicable diseases of childhood and often occurs with other atopic comorbidities. A previous case-control study found evidence that compared to children who received acellular pertussis (aP) vaccines in early infancy, children who received one or more doses of whole-cell pertussis (wP) vaccine had lower risk of developing IgE-mediated food allergy. We hypothesized that wP vaccination in early infancy might protect against atopic asthma in childhood.
Airway-associated adipose tissue increases with body mass index and is a local source of pro-inflammatory adipokines that may contribute to airway pathology in asthma co-existing with obesity. Genetic susceptibility to airway adiposity was considered in the present study through kisspeptin/kisspeptin receptor signalling, known to modulate systemic adiposity and potentially drive airway remodelling.
Rothwell Family Fellow; Head, Airway Epithelial Research
This project investigates how cells of the immune system respond to substances to cause allergies to help develop new treatments.
The study aims to identify the mechanism for this so that this knowledge can be used to better treat asthma and allergies in both males and females.
Studies in Europe show exposure of pregnant women to high levels of microbial products stimulate immune function maturation in their offspring
The Airway Epithelial Research Team is investigating the role of the epithelium in the development of airway diseases including asthma, cystic fibrosis and lung transplant rejection.