Professor of Paediatric Allergy
King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Alexandra F. Santos, MD PhD - is Professor of Paediatric Allergy at King’s College London and Attending Physician in Paediatric Allergy at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital.
Alexandra qualified in Medicine from the University of Coimbra and completed her PhD in Allergy and Immunology at King’s College London. Over the years, Alexandra has continued to combine clinical activity in Paediatric Allergy with translational research into food allergy.
The Santos Lab aims to improve the accuracy and safety of food allergy diagnosis and our understanding of the mechanisms of food allergy and oral tolerance in IgE-sensitised children to identify new targets for definitive treatment of food allergy, that we currently do not have. Alexandra has developed and validated functional tests using flow cytometry that assess how cells involved in allergic reactions to foods, i.e. basophils and mast cells, respond to the allergen. These tests, the basophil activation test (BAT) and the mast cell activation test (MAT) are more precise than measuring IgE levels. Alexandra has also explored how the function of IgE contributes to the allergic response and how other antibody isotypes like IgG4 interfere in that process. More recently, her group, in collaboration with colleagues at King’s College London, has been working on the biological basis of anxiety in food allergy and on the response of other immune cells, such as ILC and T cells, to better understand why some children become allergic to foods and identify protective pathways for treatment and prevention of food allergy.
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Unveiling the Complexity of IgE and Food Allergy: Beyond Clinical Reactions
Thursday, June 22, 2023
1:00 PM - 1:25 PM
