Schwartz Research Lab
The Schwartz Lab conducts translational research focused on the roles of innate immune cells in the development, progression, and resolution of allergic disease in children.
Eosinophils represent an important effector cell within the innate immune system and play a central role in atopy and dysregulated immune responses. How these cells are regulated and modulate innate and adaptive immune responses remains understudied and a unique scientific niche. We investigate human eosinophil development and their effector roles in eosinophilic inflammation and contribute to the research and treatment of eosinophilic disorders, such as eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders (EGIDs), through the Cincinnati Center for Eosinophilic Disorders. Our current research focuses on how eosinophils and their precursor cells, eosinophil progenitors (EoPs), contribute to the eosinophilic inflammation of EGIDs, such as eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE).
The Schwartz Lab has a developing research program in food allergy and peanut oral immunotherapy (OIT). Oral immunotherapy is an emerging treatment for children with food allergy. Few immunologic biomarkers can predict which patients will respond better to this therapy or monitor responses associated with long-term benefits. Our lab is characterizing early immunologic responses to oral immunotherapy to determine whether these responses could be leveraged as biomarkers for predicting responses to therapy. This research employs the resources of the Food Allergy Program as a pipeline for research sample collection from our expanding OIT patient cohort.
Eosinophil Progenitors in EoE
As published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, blood eosinophil progenitors (EoPs) correlate with tissue pathology during active eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), providing additional evidence for blood EoP levels as a biomarker for disease activity and suggesting a role for EoPs in EoE pathogenesis. Read the publication now.
