Research Focus
NIAID scientists and physicians are working to develop ways to stop asthma from affecting people and to develop new, better treatments for those who become sick.
Laboratory scientists are trying to understand:
- the relationship between allergens and the human immune system in triggering asthma
- how some viruses cause asthma and also make it worse
- how the human immune system evolves in children and how that development relates to children with asthma
- what genetic factors place children at risk for getting asthma
- why some cells of the immune system in people with asthma actually attack, rather than protect, the body, and how communication “signaling” takes place among those cells
Clinical research among patients with asthma focuses on:
- understanding the natural history of asthma
- identifying causes of asthma
- identifying how and why asthma affects people differently depending on race and economic factors
- understanding genetic differences that protect some children from getting asthma, but not others, and how those differences affect disease severity
- assessing new treatments
- assessing the role of viruses and outside exposures, such as tobacco smoke and pollutants, on asthma
- determining whether controlling the extent of exposure to tobacco smoke and pollutants can control the severity of asthma
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