Testimonials

“I am very grateful for the support I have received from MAARA, firstly by way of a travel grant to attend the EAACI conference 2018 in Munich, and then more recently to fund my project ‘Identification and characterisation of allergens from A. fumigatus associated with lung damage in asthma’. This support has enabled me to find new allergens from the important fungus Aspergillus fumigatus that people with asthma respond to, which could be markers of the disease progression in the form of lung damage. To date, I have found eight allergens that have not been described from the fungus before, of which one appears to be related to the presence of bronchiectasis, a form of lung damage, in people with asthma. We hope that this will be the basis of future funding and publications, which we are currently working on.”

Dr Eva-Maria Rick

University of Leicester

We are grateful to MAARA for supporting our collaborative research project between De Montfort University and the University of Leicester. Severe asthma affects a subset of people with asthma for whom current treatments are not effective. MAARA funding will support the use of single cell RNA-sequencing to identify potential new drug targets in severe asthma.

Mast cells are a type of white blood cell in the airway that play an important role in severe asthma, causing both day-to-day symptoms and attacks. Using mast cells from the airway of people with severe asthma and the latest sequencing technology, we expect to identify new ways in which mast cells can be targeted effectively with new drugs to improve care for people with asthma.”

Dr Dawn Smallwood

Leicester School of Allied Health Sciences,
De Montfort University, Leicester