Research Programs
Under the auspices of our national foundation, AAFA is involved in supporting important research.
Funding for better treatments, increased awareness and the search for cures for asthma and allergic diseases are the cornerstones of our research program. Throughout the past 25 years, AAFA has funded laboratory research for scientific investigators looking for enhanced treatments and cures for these diseases. In addition to basic research, 
AAFA also sponsors behavioral and social research initiatives to better understand the underlying factors that exacerbate the symptoms of asthma and allergic diseases, and how to be vigilant when interacting with asthma or allergy patients. Over the past two–and–a–half decades, AAFA has helped researchers leverage more than $20 million in funding to continue these worthwhile projects.
AAFA’s Investigator Research Grant Program
AAFA’s Investigator Research Grant Program provides financial opportunity to scientists to continue their research while competing for funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Candidates for support through this program are recommended by NIH, which has awarded these applications high merit review, but is unable to fund their projects due to budget constraints. AAFA’s Research Program relies on the expertise of a panel of scientists to determine than 80 percent of AAFA grantees have successfully obtained competitive research funding after completion of their AAFA grant term. AAFA’s Research Program is making a substantial contribution to increased understanding of asthma and allergies by funding the best and the brightest scientists and researchers in this field.
Awardees of AAFA Investigator Research Grants in 2007 were:
- Pedro C. Avila, M.D. of the Northwestern University Allergy, Asthma, & Immunological Clinic Research Institute in Chicago, Illinois for his project, “Pilot Study on Microarray Analysis of Airway Mucosa in Asthma Exacerbations.”
- Avery August, Ph.D. of the Pennsylvania State University College of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences in University Park, Pennsylvania for the project, “Role of the Tyrosine Kinase ITK in Experimental Allergic Asthma.”
It is estimated that 20 million Americans have asthma and 50 million have allergic diseases. The time to improve care and find cures for asthma and allergies is now. AAFA is dedicated to being a good steward of the funds it receives from caring and committed government sources, foundations, corporations and individuals across the research programs now will have a significant positive effect on the health of our citizens for years to come. As nearly five million asthma sufferers – and many more allergy sufferers – are under the age of 18, it is clear that our children, and our children’s children, will bear the brunt of these diseases if we do not act now.
“There are several lines of further investigation that have occurred because of my AAFA–funded research, and my findings have helped further the investigative efforts of other researchers as well.”
–Dr. Richard Strait, AAFA Investigator Research Grantee
AAFA commenced a new initiative for asthma and allergy research funding in 2007. In partnership with the American Thoracic Society (ATS) AAFA earmarks research funds that are matched by ATS to provide two–year research grants to a select investigator. The 2007 awardee of this leveraged funding was Loren Clark Denlinger, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, to study the Regulation of Nucleotide Receptor Function During Airway Infection in Asthma. The success of this program has prompted AAFA to designate a second grant award for this purpose, thereby more than doubling AAFA’s research funding commitment in one year.
Our research grants are relatively small financial contributions, but will ultimately play a crucial role in helping to reduce the cost of health care in this country. Estimates show that America spends approximately $20 billion in caring for asthma and allergy patients each year, including direct costs like medicines and health services and indirect costs such as missed productivity due to school or work absence. Since the 1980s, prevalence rates for asthma and allergies have increased across all socioeconomic, gender, and racial groups, and teenagers, minorities, and people in lower socioeconomic classes remain particularly vulnerable.
At AAFA, we are committed to the philosophy of helping every asthma and allergy patient live life without limits. This is the underlying motivation for everything we do as an organization. We firmly believe that investment in research of today will help improve health Our research grants are relatively small financial contributions, but care for asthma and allergy patients tomorrow, and that these will ultimate
