High profile for Southampton allergy at international congress

More than 8,000 delegates from 100 different countries attended the 33rd edition of the annual congress of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) in Copenhagen (Denmark) from 7 - 11 of June. The attendees of the congress discussed new advances in the field of allergy, an illness that affects more than 150 million people in Europe, which makes it the most common chronic disease.

The Faculty had a strong presence at the event with Professor John Holloway (pictured) giving a plenary lecture, other invited presentations by Professor Graham Roberts , Professor Mike Thomas , Dr Emily Swindle , Dr Hans-Michael Haitchi and Emeritus Professor Martin Church and Dr Kate Grimshaw .

There were also oral abstract and poster presentations from Dr Gabrielle Lockett, Dr Veeresh Patil and Zaraquiza Zolkipli together with collaborators of the Isle of Wight project team from the University of Memphis (Prof. Wilfried Karmaus), University of South Carolina (Dr Nelis Soto-Ramirez) and Michigan State University (Professor Linda Mansfield).

Special congratulations must go to Gabrielle Lockett, a postdoctoral fellow in HDH and Veeresh Patil, a PhD student in CES who both won 2 prizes each for their oral and poster presentations.

Also a special mention must go to Zaraquiza Zolkipli who presented the first results of the Mite Allergy Prevention Study showing that exposing babies to a dust mite extract can significantly reduce their risk of developing allergies (see press release: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/medicine/news/2014/06/11_doctors_discover_dust_mite_extract_can_reduce_baby_allergy_risk.page ?).