31/05/2026
Food allergies, Natasha's Foundation and a £10 million prize to advance research into food allergy
Food intolerance and allergy can complicate ME/CFS
Natasha's Foundation is a charity that is promoting and funding research into food allergy
Professor Stephen Holgate, whose main area of expertise is in immunopharmacology, and is also very involved with various ME/CFS research initiatives, is working with this charity on this major boost to research into food allergy
More information on the charity here:
https://www.narf.org.uk/leading-allergy-scientist-makes-plea
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Report (paywalled) on the research prize in The Sunday Times today:
The parents of a teenager who died after eating a baguette from Pret A Manger have launched a prize worth £10 million to fund research designed to stop food allergies from developing in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life.
July 17 will mark exactly ten years since Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died aged 15 after going into cardiac arrest on a flight to France, having consumed a sesame hidden in the Pret lunch she bought before she boarded.
Now, Natasha's Foundation, the charity her parents set up in her memory, is launching a competition that asks entrants what interventions, from conception to the age of two, could prevent food allergies from developing.
Sir Stephen Holgate, professor of immunopharmacology at the University of Southampton and director of the prize, said: “We need a completely new approach — that is what Natasha’s Prize is seeking to achieve. There have been so many encouraging new developments in our understanding of food allergy over the past few years. However, we will launch Natasha’s Prize with open minds.”
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/science/article/natashas-prize-eradicate-food-allergies-hpz3sp5wk
Dr Charles Shepherd
Hon Medical Adviser MEA
Ten years after their teenager died of a reaction from a Pret baguette, the family are targeting the problem at source: the first 1,000 days of life
