New Support for Food Allergy Severity Spectrum Mapping at Northwestern Medicine

Glen and Wendy Miller alongside their daughter, Lauren, recently made a $1.25 million gift to establish the Miller Family Severity Spectrum in Food Allergy Fund at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

This leadership gift through the Glen and Wendy Miller Family Foundation will advance the development of a spectrum map of severity of food allergy at Northwestern by combining epidemiology, patient care, and mechanistic immunology to determine key influences and mechanisms of that spectrum. By mapping the spectrum, allergists and primary care physicians will be able to better understand the severity of a patient’s allergy reactions—where he or she falls on the spectrum—for a specific food allergy in that patient. This, in turn, can help with both treatment as well as prediction of future reactions.

This cutting-edge work is being conducted within the Food Allergy Research Consortium at Northwestern Medicine and spearheaded by Ruchi S. Gupta, MD, MPH, associate professor of pediatrics-primary care, Paul J. Bryce, PhD, associate professor of medicine-allergy-immunology and microbiology-immunology, and Anne Marie Singh, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics-allergy-immunology and medicine-allergy-immunology. Drs. Gupta, Bryce, and Singh are tapping into the collaborative environment at Northwestern to take bold new steps in the realm of food allergy research and care.

“We cannot imagine giving a gift this substantial to any other group of people,” said Wendy Miller. “It’s not just about food allergy—it’s about this interdisciplinary team. Their passion and enthusiasm will touch generations through their work, and we are happy to be a part of it.”

“We are thrilled to be working with Drs. Gupta, Bryce, and Singh,” said Lauren. “Their work is known throughout the Chicagoland community and beyond as being compelling and groundbreaking.” Lauren and her husband have two children, both of whom have food allergies.

The Severity Spectrum

“This work is so important because we need to define the spectrum of food allergy as is done for other conditions like asthma and autism,” said Dr. Gupta. “We need to characterize the severity of a child's food allergy—like mild, moderate, and severe—so that families have a better idea of what type of reactions their child will commonly have. This can decrease anxiety and help to personalize management each child as an individual.”for

The main goals of this severity spectrum research project within the Food Allergy Research Consortium are to utilize existing (retrospective) clinical and epidemiological data, to develop and utilize a larger patient cohort for prospective studies, and to use that combined data to determine the mechanisms of threshold changes on key immune cells. With these results, the team will be able to identify epidemiological and immunological factors that are associated with allergic reaction severity.

Drs. Gupta, Bryce, and Singh and their respective laboratories have already begun work on mapping this severity spectrum. They have established a partnership with Stanford University wherein they will draw upon both old and new clinical data from patients to develop a predictive model for severity.

 “We hope to focus on more objective rather than subjective communications so that we can collect more meaningful data going forward,” said Dr. Bryce.

Dr. Singh continued, “We will build our database by examining existing clinical data from tests like the skin prick, and combine them with other, newer data, like blood tests.”

Food Allergy on the Rise

“The growing number of kids with allergies is alarming, and our family is among them,” shared Lauren.

Lauren herself is a passionate advocate for food allergy education. Among her many related activities, she most recently worked on a panel to help write a new food allergy protocol being put into effect in School District 109, located in Deerfield, Illinois, where her children go to school.

“Other parents look to Lauren as a strong advocate for this type of education,” said Lauren’s husband, who is clearly proud of his wife’s dedication to this important issue.

Glen and Wendy have six grandchildren, including Lauren’s two children. Four of them have food allergy and several have asthma, another area of research that the Glen and Wendy Miller Family Foundation has supported at the Feinberg School.

“We Root for the Purple”

Glen and Wendy Miller’s connection to Northwestern runs deep purple. All three of their children attended Northwestern, gaining a master’s in communication sciences and disorders, a master’s in business administration, and a doctorate of law. Additionally, Glen himself taught for 15 years at the Kellogg School of Management as an adjunct professor.

In addition to food allergy and asthma research, Glen and Wendy also have supported the Buddy Program through the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Northwestern. The program pairs Feinberg medical students with people who are in the early stages of Alzheimer’s or other related illnesses, which provides personal, professional, and therapeutic benefits to both sides.

“We wouldn’t do this anywhere else—it’s happening here and they’re here,” said Wendy, referring to Drs. Gupta, Bryce, and Singh. “Northwestern has the leadership that keeps us coming back for more and these three doctors have the vision, talent, and enthusiasm to make a real difference in the field of food allergies.”