Professor Hugh Sampson

Dr. Hugh A. Sampson is the Kurt Hirschhorn Professor of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York and has over 40 years’ experience in translational research focusing on food allergic disorders and basic immunologic mechanisms responsible for these disorders.

His research has been funded continuously by grants from the NIH, including the Principal Investigator for the Consortium for Food Allergy Research.  He has authored/co-authored over 530 original articles and 90 book chapters, and co-edited 5 books, primarily on clinical and immunopathogenic aspects of food allergic disorders, and chaired working groups that produced standardized criteria for diagnosing anaphylaxis and conducting double-blind placebo-controlled oral food challenges (Practall Guidelines). Dr. Sampson was elected to membership in the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academies in 2003 for his research accomplishments.

He is the past-president of the American Academy of Asthma, Allergy & Immunology, past Chairman of the Section on Allergy & Immunology of the American Academy of Pediatrics, past Board member of the World Allergy Organization, and has served on the Editorial Boards of five allergy journals. Dr. Sampson has trained over 40 post-doctoral allergy/immunology fellows, many of whom are now leaders in the field of food allergy.

Professor SL Taylor

Professor Emeritus and Founding Director
Food Allergy Research and Resource Program

Steve L. Taylor, Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus in the Dept. of Food Science & Technology having retired from full-time activities in July 2019.  He was a founding director of the Food Allergy Research & Resource Program (FARRP) at the University of Nebraska in 1995.  FARRP is a food industry-funded consortium with more than 100 member companies headquartered in 11 different countries.  Dr. Taylor received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in food science and technology from Oregon State University and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California – Davis.  Dr. Taylor maintained an active research program in the area of food allergies for 40 years until his retirement.

Dr. Taylor initiated his professional interest in food allergies and sensitivities in 1980.  His primary research interests involved the development of methods for the detection of residues of allergenic foods, the determination of the minimal eliciting doses for specific allergenic foods and their use in quantitative risk assessment, the assessment of the allergenicity of ingredients derived from allergenic sources, and the assessment of the allergenicity of foods produced through agricultural biotechnology.

Dr. Taylor continues some involvement in research projects in retirement.  Dr. Taylor remains involved in outreach to the food industry on food allergies and sensitivities both through FARRP and as Principal Consultant of Taylor Consulting LLC, Lincoln, Nebraska USA.  Over the years, he has helped countless companies on a wide range of allergen-related topics.

Gideon Lack

MBBCH (Oxon) MA (Oxon), FRCPCH, FMedSci – Professor of Paediatric Allergy, King’s College London

Head of the Children’s Allergy Clinical Academic Group, King’s Health Partners Institute of Women and Children’s Health at Evelina London, Guy’s & St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

Gideon Lack is Professor of Paediatric Allergy at King’s College London and Head of the Children’s Allergy Clinical Academic Group at King’s Health Partners Institute of Women and Children’s Health at Evelina London, Guy’s & St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. He studied medicine at Oxford University before training as a Paediatrician in New York and specialised in Allergy at National Jewish Center in Denver, Colorado.  He was Professor of Paediatric Allergy and Immunology at Imperial College London where he worked for 12 years before moving to King’s College London in 2006.

His research focuses on the prevalence of food allergies in children and the relationship between food allergies, eczema, and asthma. He works on novel immune-modulatory treatments for food allergies and on developing new strategies to prevent the development of allergies and asthma in children and adults.

The LEAP (Learning Early About Peanut allergy) study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine (2015) showed that early consumption of peanuts in atopic infants reduces the development of peanut allergy by >80%. In 2016-17 these findings were translated into changes in public health policy in the USA (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Addendum Guidelines for the Prevention of Peanut Allergy in the United States) and Australia. Recommendations to introduce peanut in children 4-6 months of age at high risk of developing peanut allergy.

Prof. Lack serves as a Member of Scientific Advisory Board at DBV Technologies S.A. He is a Member of the British Medical Association (BMA), The European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.