Approaches to Assessing Potential Food Allergy from Genetically Engineered Plants

Post Date

October 6th 2009

Application Due Date

January 7th 2010

Please refer to the full announcement, including Section IV, for additional information on submission methods and due dates.

Funding Opportunity Number

EPA-G2009-STAR-H1

CFDA Number(s)

66.509

Funding Instrument Type(s)

Grant

Funding Activity Categories

Environment

Number of Awards

4

Eligibility Categories

State Governments
County Governments
City or Township Governments
Public and State Controlled Institutions of Higher Education
Federally Recognized Native American Tribal Governments
Non-Profits With 501 (c) (3) Status With The IRS (Except Higher Education Institutions)
Private Institutions of Higher Education
Other

See Section III of the announcement for additional eligibility information.

Funding

• Estimated Total Funding:

  $1700000

• Award Range:

  $None - $425000

Grant Description

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is issuing this request for applications (RFA) for applied research on innovative or improved methods to predict whether or not a pesticide protein is a food allergen. Research to characterize the key factors that influence human immune responses to dietary proteins is needed in order to better assess potential food allergy from genetically engineered plants. Proposals are requested on the role of dose, route of sensitization, and/or the physicochemical properties of ingested proteins and their influence on the development of immune sensitization, oral tolerance, or the elicitation of allergic symptoms. Also of interest is how the food matrix and gastrointestinal environment in which proteins are ingested may affect these immune responses. The overall aim of the research program is to improve safety assessment for genetically engineered plants by enhancing the ability to estimate the potency of unknown proteins relative to known allergenic and non-allergenic proteins. Because there is no single, definitive test for determining the allergenic potential of novel pesticide proteins in the diet, risk assessment associated with the regulation of foods derived from modern biotechnology currently uses a “weight-of-evidence” approach. The research will contribute to improved methods for assessing the potential dietary allergenicity of pesticide proteins in genetically engineered plants.

Contact Information

• Agency

  Environmental Protection Agency

• Office:

  None

• Agency Contact:

  Susan Laessig, 202-343-9617.
  

• Agency Mailing Address:

  Susan Laessig

• Agency Email Address:

  laessig.susan@epa.gov

• More Information:

  Approaches to Assessing Potential Food Allergy from Genetically Engineered Plants