The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more than 50 million people in the US suffer from allergies. Fifteen million are allergic to foods which can be life-threatening. Now researchers have a target for developing treatments and better diagnoses.

Franny Hall’s peanut allergy has gotten worse since her first reaction to peanut butter in the first grade.

Franny said, “My throat, it closes, like bit by bit and yeah, it’s just really hard to breathe.”

She carries an Epi-pen everywhere she goes, and she’s had to use it. It’s tough for the whole family.

Tim Hall, Franny’s dad, said “You worry about what happens if this occurs to her and all the catastrophic things that can happen when you have anaphylaxis.”

Erik Wambre, PhD, Principal Researcher at Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason’s discovery of the TH2A cell could be a big step toward stopping allergies like Franny’s. Now researchers can target the cell, which only appears in people with allergies. Next, Dr. Wambre is interested in working to find the molecule that will block the Th2A cells to treat not just one allergy, but all of them.

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