Regulation Strength: Investigating Nutritional Factors in Food Allergy

Award-winning senior investigator Chang Kim, Ph.D., is the Kenneth and Judy Betz Family Research Professor at the Mary H. Weiser Food Allergy Center. Dr. Kim is a leading scientist in the areas of lymphocyte biology and mucosal immunology, which inform his study of food allergy immune responses. Here he answers seven questions about his work.

Chang Kim, Ph.D., works on a computer with a fellow researcher
Chang Kim, Ph.D., left, is the Kenneth and Judy Betz Family Research Professor at the Mary H. Weiser Food Allergy Center.

What area of food allergy are you currently investigating?

Certain dietary components profoundly affect food allergy development. We study the function of key nutritional factors, such as Vitamin A and dietary fiber metabolites, in regulating not only food allergy responses but also mucosal immune responses as a whole.

Why are you passionate about this area of research?

The impacts of these factors in regulating immune responses in patients are huge but complex. There is a lot to learn about them.

Why is this area of research important to the field of food allergy?

We now have enough evidence to say comfortably that many nutritional factors directly regulate the differentiation and activity of immune cells. Our next task is to study if these factors also affect the immune cells that regulate food allergy development.

“These findings have the potential to provide novel therapeutic targets of intervention in food allergy development.”

Chang Kim, Ph.D.

What results have you found so far?

We discovered that Vitamin A metabolites induce the generation of certain T cells, called regulatory T cells. These regulatory T cells are known to suppress food allergy development.

We also found that Vitamin A metabolites induce the death of inflammatory T cells, specifically in the intestines. Another interesting observation was that dietary fiber metabolites regulate B cells for production of protective antibodies.

What is the significance of these results?

Our body, particularly the immune system, can be altered negatively or positively by what we eat. While we mainly focus on the science of mucosal immune responses, these findings have the potential to provide novel therapeutic targets of intervention in food allergy development.

What direction do you see your research taking in the future?

We will continue our research projects to understand the immune regulatory functions of several key nutritional factors in animal models and possibly with human subjects.

Another area of interest is immune cell therapy for food allergy, which is somewhat similar to immune cell therapy for cancer. New projects will be added through collaborations with other faculty members at the center and the University of Michigan.

What do you ultimately hope to accomplish with your research?

In the past, our research made seminal contributions to the immunology field thanks to the dedicated people in the lab and various research supports from the government, school and foundations.

We hope to do the same with a focus on food allergy development.