The European Union has allocated 6 million euros to the University of Helsinki for a 5 year research project investigating the ‘hygiene hypothesis’ in relation to induction of food allergies.  The project, entitled DIABIMMUNE, aims to establish whether the decrease in the infection load is connected to type 1 diabetes and the emergence of allergies.

There are 12 partners in the project, across five countries. The study will include 7 000 children from Finland, Estonia and Russian Karelia in northwestern Russia. In each country the study will follow more than 300 children from birth to their 3rd birthday. In addition, the research will focus on 2 000 children from their third to fifth birthdays.

The hygiene hypothesis is based on the idea that high living standards and the life style connected to them seem to promote the development of autoimmune diseases and allergic symptoms. This has lead to the assumption that the immune system begins to overreact to the organism's own structures or to exogenous non-infectious proteins.