About Us
Food allergy is associated with poor health-related quality of life and high levels of psychological distress. Access to food allergy-related mental health resources and professionals equipped with food allergy expertise may be crucial to supporting patients and caregivers. Access to this support is challenging as there are few mental health professionals to whom allergists can refer patients.
In light of this, the GAPS project (Global Access to Psychological Support for Food Allergy) was set up. Funded and supported by Novartis, Aimmune, National Peanut Board and the European Academy for Allergy and Clinical Immunology, the aim of the GAPS project is to improve food allergy patient outcomes by ensuring that patients' psychosocial needs are met.
The GAPS team consists of nine international experts in food allergy research and clinical practice, including psychologists, clinicians, mixed-methods researchers and patient advocates, based in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. The project has also employed a team of research assistants to help with this truly global project.
The GAPS team [L-R]: Helen Brough, Chris Warren, Chrissie Jones, Rebecca Knibb, Linda Herbert, Ruchi Gupta, Mary Jane Marchisotto, Jennifer Protudjer
Meet Our Team
Professor Rebecca Knibb
Co-Principal Investigator
Rebecca Knibb is Professor of Health Psychology at Aston University, a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS). Rebecca has 30 years of research experience in the field of asthma and allergy and works with multidisciplinary teams across the globe to improve the health-related quality of life and mental well-being of children, adolescents and parents who are managing allergic conditions and asthma. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in this field. Her research group is running projects to improve understanding of allergy management and global access to psychological support for food allergy. They are also currently developing interventions to help patients and families manage food allergy anxiety. She is the Chair of the Psychology Special Interest Group for the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology and sits on the UK Expert Advisory Group for Allergy. She is also a member of European Association for Allergy and Clinical Immunology Task Force groups, including a Task Force to investigate the impact of allergy on adolescents.
Mary Jane Marchisotto
Co-Principal Investigator
Mary Jane Marchisotto is the founder and principal of MJM Advisory, LLC, a consultancy that provides advisory services to the food allergy community focused on advancing patient centered research, education and advocacy. Prior to founding MJM Advisory, Ms. Marchisotto served as Executive Director of the Food Allergy Initiative (FAI) and Senior Vice President, Research and International, at Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE). Highlights of her career at FAI and FARE include raising seed equity and Series A financing for Allergen Research Corporation (rebranded Aimmune Therapeutics); organizing, growing and managing the FARE Clinical Network to 33 sites across the United States; supervising the launch and implementation of the FARE Patient Registry; and writing and managing PCORI Award "Empowering Patient Partners and Key Stakeholders to Develop a Patient Centric Food Allergy Research Program". Ms. Marchisotto served as Chair of the Patient Organisation Committee of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) for three years and remains a member of that Committee. She serves on the National Peanut Board Food Allergy Advisory Council, is Executive Advisor to the International FPIES Association, and is a member of the Adverse Reactions Committee of the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI). A frequent speaker at leading global academic and industry conferences, she has co-authored about two dozen food allergy peer reviewed publications, and has served on a number of food allergy grant review and industry panels. Before joining FAI as Executive Director, Ms. Marchisotto spent 30 years in the financial services industry, concentrating on financial management issues and on the development of internal best practices.
Professor Helen Brough
Co-Principal Investigator
Helen Brough is a Consultant in Pediatric Allergy and Immunology at the Evelina Children's Hospital, St. Thomas' Hospital, Professor of Pediatric Allergy at King's College London University, Founder and Director of Children's Allergy Doctors. Helen is Medical Advisor for the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation and Health Advisory Board for Allergy UK. She is a Principal Investigator for the Stopping Eczema and Allergy (SEAL) study assessing whether proactive skin care in young infants with dry skin or eczema prevents the development of food allergy, the Pronuts study evaluating selective nut eating in nut allergic children, and the Global Assessment of Psychology Services for Food Allergy (GAPS) study. She was a co-investigator on several peanut oral and patch immunotherapy trials. She co-authored the European guidelines for the management of atopic eczema, and the food allergy prevention studies Learning Early About Peanut (LEAP, LEAP-ON, LEAP-Trio) and Enquiring About Tolerance (EAT) study. Helen studied Medicine at King's College, Cambridge University followed by clinical training at the Royal Free & University College London Medical School. Helen completed Paediatric Allergy and Immunology Higher Specialist Training at Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospital, King's College London and Great Ormond Street Hospital as the MADEL Clinical Lecturer in Paediatric Allergy. Helen completed an MSc in Allergy gaining a distinction at the University of Southampton and completed her PhD at King's College London.
Professor Christina Jones
Co-Investigator
Chrissie is a Professor in Clinical Health Psychology in the School of Psychology at the University of Surrey, Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS). Prior to joining the University of Surrey, Chrissie spent 12 years at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School starting out in the Department of Primary Care and Public Health, before moving to the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine. Chrissie's main research focuses on the design and evaluation of psychological and behavioural interventions for individuals and their families, with long term conditions with specific expertise in asthma and allergy and mental health comorbidities, placing strong emphasis on involving patients and public in the research she undertakes. Chrissie has expertise in multi-method evaluations and synthesising current evidence using systematic reviews and meta-analysis.
Dr Linda Herbert
Co-Investigator
Linda Jones Herbert, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychology & Behavioral Health at Children's National. Dr. Herbert is the Director of Psychology Research and Clinical Services for the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Children's National, a program which she started in 2013. Dr. Herbert is an NIH-funded clinical researcher whose research interests include paediatric allergic diseases and the development of behavioural interventions for patients with food allergy and their caregivers. Currently Dr. Herbert is the Principal Investigator for an NIAID-funded clinical trial of a behavioural intervention for early adolescents with food allergy to support their growing food allergy autonomy. Dr. Herbert presents her research at paediatric psychology and allergy/immunology conferences and she is a prior recipient of the Heritage Lectureship award from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
Dr Jennifer Protudjer
Co-Investigator
Dr. Jennifer Protudjer PhD is the Endowed Research Chair in Allergy, Asthma and the Environment; and, an associate professor, the Associate Director – Research; and Director, Pediatric Graduate Program, in the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba; a research scientist at the Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba; Section Head, Allied Health, and, Co-Lead of the Research Pillar, for the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology; and, sits on the steering committee for Canada's National Food Allergy Action Plan. She also holds an adjunct professorship in the Department of Foods and Human Nutritional Sciences, University of Manitoba; and, and is an affiliated researcher at the Karolinska Institutet, in Stockholm, Sweden, where she completed two post-doctoral fellowships. Her primary research interests include environmental risk factors for, and societal consequences of allergic disease, using both quantitative and qualitative methods.
Dr Chris Warren
Co-Investigator
Dr. Warren is a doctorally trained epidemiologist and health behavior researcher who has published >135 peer-reviewed manuscripts and currently leads a constellation of studies aiming to characterize, mitigate, and prevent the physical health, psychosocial, and economic burdens of food allergy. As Assistant Research Professor of Preventive Medicine and Director of Population Health Research at the Northwestern University Center for Food Allergy and Asthma Research (CFAAR), his work includes large-scale epidemiological studies and behavioral interventions funded by the National Institutes of Health, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a range of other public and private food allergy stakeholders invested in advancing scaleable approaches to preventing allergic disease and improving chronic disease management.
Professor Alexandra Santos
Co-Investigator
Professor Alexandra Santos is Professor of Paediatric Allergy at King's College London and Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Allergy at the Evelina London Children's Hospital. Alexandra qualified in Medicine from the University of Coimbra, completed her training in Allergy and Clinical Immunology at Coimbra University Hospital and her PhD in Allergy and Immunology at King's College London, supervised by Professor Gideon Lack. Over the years, Alexandra has continued to combine clinical activity in Paediatric Allergy with clinical and laboratory translational research into food allergy. The Santos Lab aims to improve the accuracy and safety of food allergy diagnosis and our understanding of the mechanisms of food allergy and oral tolerance in IgE-sensitised children to identify new targets for definitive treatment of food allergy. Alexandra has acted as chief investigator of many diagnostic studies in paediatric food allergy, including the FARE-funded BAT Impact study, a multicentre RCT on the integration of the basophil activation test (BAT) in clinical care in the UK. Alexandra is Chair of the Board of the Immunology Section of European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), Chair of the EAACI Food Allergy Guidelines and voting member of EAACI Executive Committee.
Dr Laura Polloni
Co-Investigator
Dr. Laura Polloni is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist working at the Food Allergy Reference Center of the Veneto Region, Department of Women's and Children's Health, at the University Hospital of Padua, Italy. She is Deputy Director of the Psychology Unit at the University Hospital of Padua, where she holds a highly specialized position in the field of Clinical Psychology applied to food allergies and anaphylaxis. Her main research interests include Health Psychology, Food Allergies and Nutrition, Clinical and Developmental Psychology, and School Health. In these fields, she is involved in national and international projects, and has published articles in international and accredited journals.
Mrs Suzanna Purser
Senior Research Assistant
Suzanna is a senior research assistant with the GAPS team, running the Phase 2 follow-up survey and the Phase 3 pilot of FACETS. Suzanna joined the team in January 2024, having completed an MSc in Health Psychology at Aston University, where she was awarded a distinction. She has a breadth of experience that includes qualitative and quantitative data collection and analyses, intervention evaluation and psychometric scale development and validation. Across various projects she has contributed to all stages of the research lifecycle, gaining experience with different aspects depending on the project's needs.
Acknowledgements
Co-Principal Investigators
- Professor Rebecca Knibb
- Mary Jane Marchisotto
- Professor Helen Brough
Co-Investigators
- Professor Christina Jones
- Dr Linda Herbert
- Dr Jennifer Protudjer
- Dr Chris Warren
- Professor Alexandra Santos
- Professor Ruchi Gupta
- Dr Brian Vickery (consultant for the project)
Senior Research Assistants
- Dr Cassandra Screti (phase one)
- Dr Caity Roleston (phase two interviews)
- Mrs Suzanna Purser (phase two survey)
- Dr Emily Mattacola (phase three)
Research Assistants
- Nicola O'Donnell
- Melissa Engel
- Zoe Harbottle
- Catherine Lemoine-Courcelles
- Mahboob Miah
- Hodan Omar
Funders
- Novartis
- Aimmune
- National Peanut Board
- European Academy for Allergy and Clinical Immunology
Patient Organisations
- Allergy UK
- Anaphylaxis UK
- Alergia Alimentar Brasil
- Allergy and Anaphylaxis Australia
- Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Connection Team (FAACT)
- Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE)
- Food Allergy Canada
- Missao Arco-Iris (Portugal)
- Food Allergy Interest Group of the Portuguese Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
- French Association for the Prevention of Allergies
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