The UNC site lead investigators are Edwin Kim, MD, associate professor of medicine, division chief of UNC Pediatric Allergy & Immunology, and Corinne Keet, MD, PhD, professor of pediatrics, vice chair of clinical and translational research.
The UNC School of Medicine has been selected to participate in the latest renewal of the Consortium for Food Allergy Research (CoFAR). Sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the seven-year grant is for $390,000 per year. The UNC site lead investigators are Edwin Kim, MD, associate professor of medicine, division chief of UNC Pediatric Allergy & Immunology, and member of UNC Children’s Research Institute, and Corinne Keet, MD, PhD, professor of pediatrics, vice chair of clinical and translational research, and associate director of UNC Children’s Research Institute.
CoFAR’s goal is to conduct groundbreaking clinical research on food allergy prevention and therapy on the biological mechanisms underlying food allergy. Conducting clinical research with a consortium of multiple study sites enables investigators to pursue questions that can only be answered through the participation of high numbers of study volunteers.
Most recently, CoFAR’s OUtMATCH clinical trial found that treatment with omalizumab (Xolair) substantially increased the amount of peanut, tree nuts, egg, milk and wheat that multi-food allergic children as young as 1 year could consume without experiencing an allergic reaction. The Food and Drug Administration approved Xolair for people with food allergy based on the study findings. Stage one results from the OUtMATCH clinical trial were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February 2024. Edwin Kim, MD, Corinne Keet, MD, PhD, and UNC School of Medicine colleague Mike Kulis, PhD, were contributing authors.
The new awards will support consortium-wide clinical research projects, which may include treatment or prevention clinical trials. The selection process for these consortium-wide projects began in March 2024. The awards also will support local food allergy-related clinical studies conducted by individual CoFAR sites and the completion of the remaining stages of the OUtMATCH trial.