Stallergenes Greer Foundation Celebrates Excellence in Allergy Innovation With 2025 Awards

The Stallergenes Greer Foundation, dedicated to advancing allergy research, fostering innovation and addressing environmental factors which impact allergies, is delighted to announce the recipients of the 2025 edition of its prestigious Science Awards for Allergy. Building on the success of the previous edition, this year’s awards recognise outstanding contributions to allergy research and patient engagement and allocate a total of €100,000 to support these initiatives.

Four researchers have been selected by the Board as award recipients, each receiving €25,000 across two categories:

Innovation In Treatment Awards

• Assoc. Professor Alexander Eggel, PhD, Department for Biomedical Research, University of Bern, and Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, University Hospital Bern, Switzerland, recognised for his research: “Improving diagnostic and therapeutic options for allergic patients”;
• Dr Janice A. Layhadi, PhD, Research Associate, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, United Kingdom, recognised for her research: “Integrated multi-omics approach to elucidate cellular and molecular pathways modulated by allergen-specific immunotherapy in innate lymphoid cells”;
• Dr Laurent Reber, PhD, Research Director, ERC team “Asthma, Allergy & Immunotherapy”, Inserm, INFINITY Institute, Toulouse, France, recognised for his research: “Development of allergen-specific mRNA vaccines for the treatment of allergic diseases”.

Patient Commitment Award

• Dr Pablo Rodríguez del Río, MD, PhD, Allergy Department, Hospital Infantil Universitario Niño Jesús. Fundación para la investigación Biomédica del Hospital Niño Jesús. Instituto de Investigación Hospital de La Princesa. Madrid, Spain, recognised for his work: “Understanding patient’s perspective and relevance of food immunotherapy outcomes. The COFAITH project”.

Dominique Pezziardi, Chairman of the Stallergenes Greer Foundation, expresses his congratulations to the award recipients. “These researchers represent exactly what our Foundation stands for: innovation grounded in real patient impact. Their contributions move the science forward and help ensure better care for people living with allergies everywhere.”

The Scientific Board highlighted the breadth and quality of the awarded projects, spanning cutting-edge therapeutic innovation, improved diagnostics and a deeper understanding of patient needs in allergy management.

The Stallergenes Greer Foundation extends its thanks to all applicants and acknowledges the invaluable contribution of the Scientific Board in the selection process.

About the research projects

Alexander Eggel’s research seeks to enhance both the diagnosis and treatment of allergic diseases through a translational and patient-centred approach. His team has developed a novel ex vivo mast cell activation test capable of accurately assessing allergen-specific responses from patient samples, offering a safer and more predictive alternative to conventional diagnostic methods. In parallel, his work on next-generation anti-IgE biologics (Effector Cell Response Inhibitors; ECRIs) introduces multifunctional therapies that rapidly disarm allergic effector cells in three ways: prevent binding of free IgE, actively remove precomplexed IgE from its high-affinity receptor, and down-regulate IgE receptor levels. Together, these innovations aim to improve precision, safety, and efficacy in allergy management.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/all.16341

Janice A. Layhadi’s research aims to better understand the biological mechanisms underlying allergen immunotherapy (AIT) through advanced multi-omics approaches. By integrating single-cell transcriptomics, epigenetics, and proteomics, her work identifies key cellular pathways involved in immune tolerance and distinguishes responders from non-responders to treatment. Her discovery of regulatory innate lymphoid cell subsets and associated signalling pathways provides valuable insights for the development of predictive biomarkers. Ultimately, her research supports more personalised, targeted, and effective allergy treatments, addressing unmet needs in diseases such as allergic rhinitis.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33450188/

Laurent Reber’s research focuses on developing innovative vaccine strategies aimed at providing long-term protection against allergic diseases. His work explores the induction of endogenous neutralising antibodies targeting key drivers of allergic inflammation, such as IL-4, IL-13, and IgE. By demonstrating sustained protection against asthma, dermatitis, and anaphylaxis in preclinical models, his approach could offer a cost-effective and durable alternative to current biologic therapies. In parallel, his research on mRNA-based allergen vaccines, particularly targeting birch pollen allergy, opens new perspectives for next-generation immunotherapy, with the potential to improve long-term efficacy and patient outcomes.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/all.15680

Pablo Rodríguez del Río’s research brings a critical patient-centred perspective to food allergen immunotherapy (FAIT). Through an international, multicentre EACCI Task force study involving patients and caregivers, his work explores which treatment outcomes matter most to those directly affected. By analysing patient-reported outcomes, quality of life measures, and treatment expectations across diverse populations, his research reveals the complexity and variability of patient preferences. These findings highlight the importance of integrating patient perspectives into clinical decision-making and support the development of more tailored, shared approaches to allergy treatment.

https://www.jaci-inpractice.org/article/S2213-2198(25)00418-0/abstract

About the Stallergenes Greer Foundation

The Stallergenes Greer Foundation, under the aegis of the Fondation de France, is a non-profit foundation whose aim is to build healthier futures for all. The Stallergenes Greer Foundation pursues a comprehensive approach calling for “the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally, to attain optimal health for people, animals and our environment”, as defined by the One Health initiative.

The scientific Board is composed of a panel of internationally renowned experts:

• Pascal Demoly, Professor of Pulmonology and Head of Department at the University Hospital of Montpellier (France)
• Alessandro Fiocchi, MD, Director of Allergy at Pediatric Hospital Bambino Gesù, Rome (Italy)
• Carla Irani, Associate Professor, Internal Medicine and Clinical Immunology, Allergology - Immunological Asthma at Hôtel Dieu de France University Medical Center, Beirut (Lebanon)
• Kari Nadeau, MD, PhD, Chair of the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston (MA, U.S.A.)

Read more: www.stallergenesgreer-foundation.org

About Fondation de France

Created in 1969, Fondation de France is a private organisation recognised as being of public interest, whose mission is to support all forms of generosity and translate them into effective actions of general interest. With close to 1,000 hosted foundations, the Fondation de France supports more than 10,000 promising and innovative initiatives each year, in France and abroad. Independent and private, it operates thanks to the generosity of donors.

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