Southampton University have published an article detailing how the funding for training has been boosted by Natasha’s Allergy Research Foundation.
Half of all children and a third of adults in the UK have an allergy. To care for them, more specialist clinical teams and research is urgently needed but provision for essential clinical training to NHS staff and research is currently underfunded.
Thanks to a £400,000 donation from the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, more doctors, nurses and dietitians from across the UK will now be able to access world-leading allergy training to develop their skills in caring for patients living with allergies and improving their clinical service.
Natasha’s Foundation will donate £100,000 to the University of Southampton over the next four years to fund bursaries to study modules in the University’s internationally recognised Masters degree course in Allergy. It will also donate £300,000 to fund three PhD students at the University’s world leading allergy research centre.
Over more than three decades, researchers at the University have been at the forefront of investigation into allergic disease. They identified the human mast cell as the principle cause of acute asthma attacks on exposure to allergens and subsequently showed that activation of the cell was responsible for acute allergic symptoms at other sites in the patient, including anaphylaxis. Today University researchers conduct studies such as identifying genetic and environmental risk factors for allergy, studying of the natural history of allergic disease in populations, developing new treatments for allergic disease and trialling new strategies to prevent allergic disease developing in the first place.
John Holloway, Professor of Allergy and Respiratory Genetics at the University of Southampton said: “It is vital that we keep developing the next generation of experts to make sure our research to help people suffering from allergies can continue. We are really excited about being able to bring more students to our team, helping us to improve the day to day life of patients with allergies and developing effective treatments.”
For the full article from Southampton University click here: READ MORE