Basophil-Microarray Based Allergy Assay wins Award

Filed in archive Allergy: Diagnostics and Treatment on December 2, 2008

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 4786023

Kudos and congratulations to Dr Franco Falcone and his colleagues of the University of Nottingham's School of Pharmacy, for their work on new basophil-microarray based allergy assay which won this year's Da Vinci award in the Breakthrough Technology category.

The new technology developed at Nottingham is a lab-based, in-vitro test to mimic human allergic reaction that could be used as an alternative to the traditional skin-prick test. It can test up to 5,000 different food or inhalant allergens that could cause an allergic reaction in a patient and the researchers are hoping it could also be developed as a diagnostic tool for parasitic infections.

It works by adding tiny dots of allergen molecules to paper on a glass slide. A drop of the patient's blood is added before the slide is incubated with the cells causing the symptoms of allergy. Cellular activation can then be analysed to discover which of the allergens are prompting the release of histamine and other chemicals indicative of allergic reaction in the patient's blood.

Dr Marcos Alcocer, a lecturer in the School of Biosciences, said: "The whole idea is to trace what we call our immunological profile, the finger print of our immune system which tells us how we react to the things which we are surrounded by.

It's similar to the skin prick test, except for one major difference: the reactions occur on a special test paper instead of your skin. So, no pricks, and no hives for substances you're allergic to. Neat!