Good Day BIO: Escaping the food allergy prison

October 12, 2021
A new episode of the I am BIO Podcast explores how biotech is making food safer for people with allergies or sensitives. And since it’s Hispanic Heritage Month, we take a closer look at COVID-19 disparities and vaccine hesitancy in the Hispanic and Latinx community. …
BIO

A new episode of the I am BIO Podcast explores how biotech is making food safer for people with allergies or sensitives. And since it’s Hispanic Heritage Month, we take a closer look at COVID-19 disparities and vaccine hesitancy in the Hispanic and Latinx community. (832 words, 4 minutes, 9 seconds)

 

Escaping the food allergy prison

 
 

Every three minutes in the U.S., an allergic reaction to foods sends someone to the emergency room. But thanks to biotech, there is hope for people living with food allergies and sensitivities, as we explore in today’s new episode of the I am BIO Podcast.

An estimated 32 million Americans suffer from food allergies—the top nine of which are milk, wheat, soy, egg, peanut, tree nut, fish, shellfish, and sesame, according to Lisa Gable, CEO of Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE).

There's “urgent, unmet medical need for innovative treatments in food allergy,” she explains. “The standard of care has always been avoidance and that drastically impacts patient quality of life,” as well as creates risk and fear of accidental exposure.

But now, researchers are making foods safer for those living with allergies and sensitivities as well as “evolving the concept of food as medicine,” says BIO President and CEO Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath.

Proteins are a major problem—especially those in wheat and peanuts, which can cause a reaction in a large percentage of the population.

Using both conventional breeding and genetic engineering, researchers are "targeting to eliminate those proteins so the plant does not produce those major allergens,” says Sachin Rustgi, Assistant Professor of Molecular Breeding at Clemson University’s College of Agriculture. They’re also researching how to “degrade these proteins into small pieces,” so the plants can keep necessary proteins in a way that’s easier for humans to process. 

“Biotechnology could play a key role in either reducing food allergies or helping people overcome their allergies” with innovative new therapies, says Emily Brown, Founder and CEO of the Food Equality Initiative. “It’s going to take innovation and really the community coming together.” 

But public policy is important, too: “We need to really look at the regulatory pathway for medical foods, biologics, multi-allergen strategies, and innovative ways of delivering the food, which serves to desensitize the patient,” adds Gable. This means working with FDA on “fast-tracking diagnosis, diagnostics, and therapies,” as well as on food regulation and labeling.

Listen to the whole thing. The episode is available now at www.bio.org/podcast and via Apple, Google, and Spotify.

 

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Overcoming vaccine hesitancy in the Hispanic and Latinx community

 
 

While 18.5% of the U.S. population is Hispanic and Latinx, the community represents 26.9% of COVID-19 cases nationwide. Reducing vaccine hesitancy is key to achieving health equity—we take an exclusive look at how we can get there

Hispanic and Latinx people face major disparities in COVID risk factors. They are 2.3 times as likely as non-Hispanic white people to die from COVID-19, and from 2019-2020, Hispanic Americans saw a decrease in life expectancy by 3 years versus 2.9 years for Black Americans and 1.2 years for non-Hispanic white people.

Hispanic and Latinx communities have also been at the forefront of confronting the pandemic from day one. Hispanic workers make up 10.6% of the pharmaceutical and medical manufacturing workforce, while 390,000 Hispanic health aides account for 17.1% of all health aides in the United States. 

73% of Hispanic adults in the U.S. had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at the end of September 2021, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey—a 12% increase from July 2021. 

But there is significant mistrust in vaccines within these communities. Oregon State University (OSU) found one major fear was belief that getting vaccinated could cause sterilization. 

Collaboration with local community leaders is key to combat hesitancy. “NMBio has appreciated and has been supportive of [New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan] Grisham’s leadership and that of the state’s Health Department throughout the COVID-19 outbreak,” Greg Byrnes, Executive Director of NMBio, told us. “Their collaboration with the business community and the state’s health care institutions and organizations is responsible for New Mexico’s ability to keep the percentage of COVID cases well below the national average.” 

The bottom line: While COVID-19 cases are, thankfully, declining nationwide, we still have work to do to get more people vaccinated and combat disparities. Addressing vaccine equity in communities disproportionately impacted must remain a priority.

Read the whole thing. 

 

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Dr. Franklin Chang-Díaz was the first Hispanic astronaut and completed seven space missions for NASA, with his first on the Columbia in 1986. He later founded Ad Astra Rocket, in addition to teaching university-level astronomy and physics.

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