Project description
Diagnosing 301 allergies at a time
Allergies affect more than 1 billion people globally (150 million of these in Europe) but identifying allergens is notoriously difficult, slow and expensive. The socioeconomic burden on workplaces and families is high. This project revolves around the FABER test, which can diagnose 301 allergens at a time and accommodate newly-discovered triggers as well. Using nanotechnology, the FABER test can also produce results faster and more accurately than conventional methods, at a reasonable price. This personalised test will also be disseminated through the FABER-Net, a local-level network of labs sharing expertise globally.
Objective
Allergies are the most common chronic disease: with >1B people affected globally, of which >150M in Europe, today allergies are a worldwide epidemic. Besides clinical symptoms such as rhinitis, asthma and atopic eczema, allergies cause distress in those affected, who live in fear of an asthma attack, anaphylactic shock, or death from an allergic reaction. In addition, allergies have high costs for businesses and society: in the EU, work absenteeism of allergic patients costs €55-151B/year, while families with one allergic child or adult spend an extra €3,900-8,100/year.
A high-quality and reliable allergy diagnosis is essential to identify the best treatment option for allergic patients and improve their health, and also to reduce costs. Today there are >3000 molecules known to cause allergies, but current methods for diagnosis are not able to test a high number of allergens, at a reasonable price and in a short time; also, most of them are invasive and present some risks for the patients. On top of this, every year new allergens are discovered, but they can’t be included in diagnostic tests for technical and economic reasons. To overcome these limitations ADL has created the FABER test: a multiplex system for allergy diagnosis that can test 301 allergens at the time - the highest number currently available. This is a flexible system based on nanotechnology in which the number of allergens can be increased when new ones are available. ADL aims to expand in Europe and then worldwide the network of labs that provide FABER allergy diagnosis at the most local level and with ADL’s highest testing quality. Thanks to this network (FABER-Net), the FABER test will be available for many patients suffering from allergies, who will have a more informative diagnosis, which in turn will allow a more personalized and effective treatment. This will improve the patients’ health and reduce their absenteeism from work, thus cutting costs in healthcare and associated with work absence
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
04100 LATINA LT
Italy
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.