# Challenging Allergies: The Search for a Magic Bullet for Pediatric Food Allergies

> **NIH NIH G13** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2024 · $48,544

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
This project proposes empirical research and a scholarly book on the medicalization and pharmaceuti-
calization of food allergies. One out of every 13 US children has a food allergy, and nearly half of those
children are allergic to multiple foods. Because food allergies can be life-threatening, a significant amount
of biomedical research and development has been invested in finding effective therapies. These novel
therapeutic options—including one recent FDA-approved drug, an array of clinical trials, and even un-
regulated food-based treatments—have attracted considerable parental interest despite potentially sig-
nificant risks. Indeed, preliminary research indicates that parents often have a higher tolerance for the
risks of these medical treatments compared to the risks from food.
I am currently completing an ethnographic study of peanut allergy clinical trials, and the proposed project
will expand and continue this line of research for the scholarly book through three specific aims: (1) ex-
plore the experiences and perceptions of parents of children with peanut or other food allergies who have
not pursued clinical trials, (2) document how unregulated food allergy treatments are being offered
through private practices, and (3) integrate empirical findings from Aims 1 & 2 with my current ethno-
graphic work on food allergy clinical trial participation. For Aim 1, I will conduct 30 interviews with par-
ents who are (a) practicing avoidance of their children's food allergens with no additional treatment, (b)
treating their children's peanut allergy with the FDA-approved drug, or (c) treating their children's food
allergies with unregulated therapies. For Aim 2, I will conduct 10 interviews with clinicians who offer
unregulated food-based treatments for food allergies to analyze how they describe their practices, includ-
ing any safety protocols they have in place. The book manuscript will be written as part of Aim 3, wherein
I will use data from both projects to provide a comprehensive view of food allergy therapeutics.
The proposed project is significant because it will provide rich information about how US families navi-
gate food allergies as a part of everyday life as well as a condition that increasingly justifies risky thera-
peutic interventions. This project is innovative because food allergy therapeutics have not been examined
from a critical social science perspective, and there has been no empirical research comparing the per-
spectives of parents who choose different medical pathways to manage their children's food allergies or
comparing how stakeholders perceive potential differences between FDA-approved, investigational, and
unregulated food allergy treatments. Food allergies are certainly a health threat, but this new era of food
allergy therapeutics marks a transition in which the condition is being more intensely and problematically
medicalized.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10886496
- **Project number:** 5G13LM014170-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** JILL A FISHER
- **Activity code:** G13 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $48,544
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-07-12 → 2026-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10886496

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10886496, Challenging Allergies: The Search for a Magic Bullet for Pediatric Food Allergies (5G13LM014170-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10886496. Licensed CC0.

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