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Teen Creates DNA Test For Food Allergies!

January 28, 2019

 

Teen Creates DNA Test For Food Allergies!
 
From The New York Times: High school student Ayush Alag, a senior at Harker School in San Jose, California has developed a DNA test that can potentially identify whether someone has a deadly food allergy. Ayush's test looks for genetic markers that a person hash a full-blown allergy instead of just being sensitive towards them. The most common food allergy tests also spot food sensitivities. For example, testing we often perform at Chicago Allergy & Asthma can identifiy food sensitivties.  Using public data from people with allergies that had their genome sequences he was able to identify several genes associated with food allergies that had not been identified before. 
 
As a child Ayush spent hours every week sitting through oral food tests that bored him and hopes that his test can one day reliably provide an alternative for other people. He told the San Francisco Chronicle, "There are 15 million people with food allergies. If we can make a difference in some of their lives, that will be gratifying to me personally." He is continuing his research and has secured a $10,000 grant from Illumina, a San Diego company focused on genomic testing.