Hi MLE,

I am pleased to say that we have launched our animation for FASI (the Food Allergy Science Initiative), before we all broke for the holidays. 

Food allergy is a severe public health threat faced by millions worldwide, the large majority of whom are children. For decades, it was thought that an allergic reaction was caused when the immune system sees certain foods as a foreign invader. As a result, the reaction may lead to inflammation, shock and even death.

However, we are now discovering that a key component to food allergies is the nervous system, as well as the immune system. It is the cells in epithelial tissues that first detect allergies. FASI aims to leverage these insights together with our understanding of the underlying biological basis of food allergy, to transform advances in diagnosis, prevention, and treatment, which is really exciting.

For more information, you can see the animation we built for FASI at the link below:
foodallergy.broadinstitute.org

Happy New Year!

Suzan