Paediatric asthma

https://www.bsms.ac.uk/research/clinical-and-experimental-medicine/paediatrics/index.aspx

Although this is a global programme focussed on national and international interventions to improving care for children with asthma and allergy, Somnath and his team work with local charities, schools and other communities (including local patients and their parents) to increase awareness and quality of life.

Our internationally recognised research into childhood asthma has brought significant progress within a short space of time from the exploration of new mechanisms in children's asthma to benefit for patients. Professor Mukhopadhyay’s recent study has confirmed his previous findings that common asthma reliever drugs taken by millions of children around the world may increase the risk of asthma attacks in some patients with a particular genetic make-up. He found that salbutamol, a popular blue inhaler medicine, as well as salmeterol, a long-acting version also in common use, are less effective in children with a specific gene variant and may in some cases make their asthma worse.

RESEARCHERS Dr Katy Fidler > Prof Somnath Mukhopadhyay > Dr Heike Rabe > Associated researchers Dr Christina Jones >

The research team has also discovered several new pathways contributing to poor asthma control in children. This work has sparked off research into a better understanding of the underlying functional defects and the development of new interventions. For example, the discovery of the link between filaggrin gene defects and childhood atopy and asthma has led to much work on understanding how asthma and allergy develops and the search for novel therapies.

The paediatric research team is based at the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital in Brighton.