Mission Critical: Working Tirelessly to Transform Food Allergy Diagnosis and Care | Food Allergy Center | Michigan Medicine

James R. Baker, Jr., M.D., is the director of the Mary H. Weiser Food Allergy Center.

What is special about the research environment at the Mary H. Weiser Food Allergy Center?

From my time as the CEO of the national Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE), I have a broad perspective of all of the centers across the country focused on food allergy. From that perspective, I can tell you that the Mary H. Weiser Food Allergy Center at the University of Michigan is truly unique, period.

Most of these centers focus on one aspect: immunology, biome or other specific areas of research, whereas our center truly addresses all areas involved in the complex development of food allergy. We work at the interface of all these very complex scientific disciplines, which are all independently important.

However, it is only our center that brings these areas together in a single place to address them with both basic and clinical research. We literally can advance from bench-top studies, to work in animals, and finally to studies in human beings. It is an important and unique way to do research.

What is the research being done in food allergy at the Mary H. Weiser Food Allergy Center?

I think there are three areas where we are concentrating that are very important right now.

One is understanding the fundamental immunology behind food allergy and how the environment interacts with the body’s immune system; looking at the gut microbiome and other factors and how they affect the development of food allergies.

The second is food allergy prevention: looking at ways to alter the immune response through vaccines that can actually turn off allergic immunity even after it’s developed.

A third is looking at ways to ameliorate allergic reactions to protect children when they have allergic reactions so they won’t need epinephrine (EpiPens). These are all going to be very important.

Why is food allergy research important?

Food allergy is an unrecognized epidemic that now involves about 1 in every 12 children. People think food allergy is simply an annoyance, brought on by helicopter parents. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

This is a very bad disease that not only can kill them but alters people’s lives because they cannot eat freely or even feel comfortable going to a birthday party or a soccer game.

Thirty-five years ago, I cared for some of the first patients with AIDS at Walter Reed and NIH. If you told me back then that one day AIDS would be a totally treatable disease with hundreds of drugs available and that we would have nothing to offer children with food allergies except epinephrine autoinjectors, I would not have believed you. That, unfortunately, is the remarkable situation we now face.

“We want to make sure that we’re going to be around to help people and develop not just first-generation therapies that might help a portion of patients, but create fundamental change in how people approach food allergy that will provide universal therapies that eventually end this disease.”

James R. Baker, Jr., M.D.

Why are you passionate about food allergy research?

I have been an allergist for almost 40 years, and during the course of my career, this has become one of the major illnesses allergists treat. When I first started, if we had someone come in with peanut allergy, we would call in all the trainees to show them because it was an anomaly.

Now about a third of an allergist’s practice includes patients with food allergy. Having observed young people devastated by this disease not being able to eat, not being able to participate, seeing the incredible increase that’s occurred over the years makes it a real passion for me.

The fact that there’s been so little done about helping these children is frustrating and quite honestly an embarrassment to me as a physician.

I am very passionate in trying to move the science along and get patients real therapies that will keep them from being literally killed by the problem. I am pleased that we now have better recognition of the problem, but people still don’t take it seriously. I think that’s something we need to change.

What would you like people to understand about food allergy research?

Number one, I think people need to understand that food allergy is a disease — not some type of lifestyle decision. It’s a disease that can kill people, and it’s a disease that has no therapy and no prevention. Most importantly, when you look at allergic children that don’t appear ill, please remember that at any moment if they are exposed to a food, they could die. That’s something that everyone needs to understand.

Michigan is committed to being “first in class” in addressing food allergies from every aspect. If you are interested in any specific area of food allergy, be it the environment, be it the immunology, be it drugs or vaccines to treat, let alone the psychosocial issues, you should feel comfortable that Michigan is going to take the lead in all those areas.

What do you hope for the future?

We’re starting to see glimmers of scientific insights and at Michigan, we have a critical mass forming. Despite this, food allergy is a tough and a complex disease. I don’t view our work as a sprint; it is a marathon.

One of the things we’re doing here at the Weiser Center is setting up for the long term. We want to make sure that we’re going to be around to help people and develop not just first-generation therapies that might help a portion of patients, but create fundamental change in how people approach food allergy that will provide universal therapies that eventually end this disease.