HHS Secretary Kennedy, NIH Director Bhattacharya, ARPA-H Director Jackson and FDA Commissioner Makary Signal National Commitment to Advancing Prevention, Treatment, and Cures

In an unprecedented, high-level commitment of federal attention, senior leaders from the federal health agencies joined the Food Allergy Fund (FAF) today for its Leadership Forum–a meeting uniting government, academia, philanthropy, and industry to address food allergies affecting 1 in 13 children and 1 in 10 adults.

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Food Allergy Fund Founder and CEO Ilana Golant interviews HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the Food Allergy Fund Leadership Forum in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: Mark Finkenstaedt for the Food Allergy Fund

Federal health leaders called for urgent action to address what they described as one of the most overlooked public-health crises of this generation. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, and FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary delivered keynote remarks underscoring alignment across federal health agencies. Secretary Kennedy said that the Food Allergy Fund’s thesis reflects growing recognition that food allergies demand the same attention as other chronic and life-threatening conditions.

“Under my leadership, HHS is making it a top priority to uncover the root causes of food allergies,” Secretary Kennedy said. “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership and his Make America Healthy Again vision, we’re confronting the childhood chronic disease epidemic at its source — restoring the health of our children and the nation.”

“As a cornerstone of NIH’s mission, nutritional science research advances gold-standard, evidence-based discoveries that empower all Americans to live healthier lives and reduce the burden of chronic disease,” Director Bhattacharya said.

Ilana Golant, founder and CEO of the Food Allergy Fund, is a food allergy parent and developed adult-onset food allergies, as 48% of food allergies now start in adulthood. She said the level of federal engagement marked a pivotal shift for families and patients living with the condition.

“Food allergies remain one of the most overlooked and underfunded public-health challenges,” Golant said. “Also, they may be the canary in the coal mine for a broader immune-health crisis. By breaking down silos and uniting science, policy, and innovation, we can unlock solutions that reach far beyond food allergies.”

Dr. Alicia Jackson, the newly appointed Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), discussed the agency’s growing commitment to advancing food allergy science and related fields.

“I came to lead ARPA-H to tackle and to solve the major health challenges facing Americans today, like the food allergy crisis,” said Dr. Jackson. “ARPA-H exists for one purpose: to take on the challenges that are too big, too complex, and too high-risk for traditional funding or industry. We are calling on the best researchers, entrepreneurs and leaders to send us their brightest minds with the passion, expertise and ideas that can create a future where preventing and eliminating food allergies is fully possible.”

A panel of leading health-tech CEOs presented next-generation solutions — from AI-powered wearables that detect early signs of anaphylaxis, to a toothpaste-based immunotherapy and a next-generation biologic — showing how patient-centered invention can transform food allergy.

The Forum also marked the announcement of FAF’s Microbiome Collective, a first-of-its-kind, multi-million-dollar collaboration uniting leading research institutions to uncover the root causes of food allergies and related immune-driven diseases.

The Collective builds on breakthrough research already funded by FAF, including a first-in-human trial at Boston Children’s Hospital showing that 40% of participants achieved up to a six-fold increase in peanut tolerance after a single microbiota transfer treatment. FAF also supported complementary research at the University of Chicago exploring synbiotic and probiotic-based approaches to retrain the immune system to tolerate allergenic foods.

“Previous microbiome studies have been limited by small sample sizes, different methodologies, and isolated datasets,” said Dr. Rima Rachid, director, Food Allergy Program at Boston Children’s Hospital. “FAF’s Collective model creates the scale and standardization needed to link specific microbiome mechanisms to disease, and, more importantly, to develop precision treatments.”

“We believe food allergies are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Dr. Susan Lynch, director at Benioff Center for Microbiome Medicine and professor of medicine at University of California San Francisco. “How we understand and modulate the microbiome could transform how we prevent and treat a whole spectrum of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.”

In the coming weeks, FAF will release a Request for Proposals (RFP) to accept research projects focused on developing new diagnostics, treatments, and prevention strategies for food allergies, and will prioritize funding for collaborative projects that can be replicated across multiple sites and translated into patient care quickly.

To read more about the Food Allergy Fund and its research initiatives, visit www.foodallergyfund.org.

About the Food Allergy Fund

The Food Allergy Fund (FAF) is the leading nonprofit dedicated to funding research to prevent, treat and cure food allergies—a growing public health crisis affecting 10% of people in the United States and more than 350 million people worldwide. Through competitive grants and global convenings of scientists, policymakers, industry leaders, and entrepreneurs, FAF accelerates breakthroughs. FAF's mission is to create a future where no one suffers from food allergies. Learn more at www.foodallergyfund.org.

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“Food allergies remain one of the most overlooked and underfunded public-health challenges,” said Ilana Golant, founder & CEO of the Food Allergy Fund. “Also, they may be the canary in the coal mine for a broader immune-health crisis.”