The parents of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died at age 15 from a sesame allergy in a Pret A Manger sandwich, have launched a £10 million fund to research food allergies. The goal is to prevent severe reactions from birth, which could reduce risks in children and improve food safety for everyone.
How science seeks to deactivate the immune system from day one 🔬
The fund will finance studies on early exposure to allergens and modulation of the immune system in babies. Predictive biomarkers and preventive therapies based on oral immunotherapy will be investigated. The goal is to develop protocols that, applied in the first months of life, reduce the incidence of severe allergies. This involves genetic analyses and large-scale clinical trials to validate replicable methods.
The sandwich worth £10 million that contains no sesame 🥪
While Natasha's parents invest in science so that no child dies from a bread roll, fast-food chains are probably already calculating how much it will cost them to change their recipes. Because, of course, it's always easier to pay £10 million for research than to read the sesame oil label. At least now sandwiches will have an extra reason not to kill anyone.