EuroPrevall establishes a serum bank

The EU-funded multidisciplinary project EuroPrevall has successfully established a serum bank containing samples from approximately 70,000 subjects. The EuroPrevall serum bank (EPASB), is a major tool that will be used in studies of the prevalence and distribution of food allergies in infants, children, adolescents, and adults in Europe, threshold doses for allergenic foods, the role of the environment in food allergy, the socioeconomic impact of food allergy, and novel diagnostic tools for food allergies.

EPASB is coordinated by the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, Germany. Local sera collections are administered at the University of Amsterdam (NL), the University Hospital of Manchester (UK), Charité Hospital (DE) and the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut. The EPASB coordinator and managing partners distribute samples for experimental work and regulate access. The overall aim is to provide sera to fulfil EuroPrevall research goals.

The EPASB coordinator and managing partners suggest appropriate sera for addressing specific scientific and diagnostic questions. The serum bank will be maintained after termination of the project, but subsequent investigations must be in accordance with the original research goals of EuroPrevall.

A more detailed description of the serum bank and associated research will appear in the forthcoming issue of the Journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology.