Our study entitled "A novel functional mast cell assay for the detection of allergies" has been published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. This project has been conducted in collaboration with the fantastic group of Prof. Thomas Kaufmann from Institute of Pharmacology at the University of Bern and many other great investigators including Prof. Jean-Pierre Kinet from Harvard University. Congratulations to the first author Noemi Zbären who has done an amazing job in establishing this diagnostic assay from scratch. We are currently exploring ways to bring this new approach to the diagnostic allergy market. Stay tuned for more news to come soon.

Our study entitled "Structure-guided design of ultrapotent disruptive IgE inhibitors to rapidly terminate acute allergic reactions" has been published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. This has been an amazing collaborative effort with the group of Prof. Theodore S. Jardetzky from Stanford University. Congratulations to the shared first authors Dr. Luke Pennington and Dr. Pascal Gasser who have spearheaded the study. We feel that the newly developped disruptive IgE inhibitors described in this work feature a remarkable therapeutic potential for the treatment of allergies.

Our study entitled "Accuracy of serological testing for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies: First results of a large mixed-method evaluation study" has been published in the European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. We congratulate the first authors Dr. Daniel Brigger and Dr. Michael Horn who have put a tremendous amount of work into this project! The published stuy has improved our understanding of antibody responses in COVID-19 patients and highlighted the role of neutralizing antibodies as a correlate of protection. Further, this work will lay the foundation for important comparisons to antibody responses induced by vaccination. 

Our study entitled "Eosinophils regulate adipose tissue inflammation and sustain physical and immunological fitness in old age" has been published in Nature Metabolism. This has been an incredibly exciting collaboration with excellent national and international colleagues in the fields of aging, neuroscience, tumor and bone biology, infectiology, visceral surgery and immunology. We thank and congratulate the lead author Dr. Daniel Brigger from our Lab and all other contributors for this exceptional piece of work! The study has been co-led by Dr. Mario Noti (formerly: Institute of Pathology at the University of Bern; currently: Department of Gastrointestinal Health, Immunology, Nestlé Research) and funded by the VELUX STIFTUNG, the FONDATION ACTERIA as well as the FreeNovation and biological-medical research programs from Novartis. 

We also thank Prof. Chih-Hao Lee from Harvard University for highlighting this study in an additional News and Views article!

- Report from the local TV broadcasting station TeleBärn.

We are happy, pround and honoured to announce that PD Dr. Alexander Eggel has been awarded the Swiss Immunology Early Career Award 2020 (SIECA 2020) by the Swiss Society of Allergology and Immunology (SGAI) for his outstanding scientific achievements. The prize has been sponsored by Sanofi Genzyme Switzerland.

Our PhD student Pascal Guntern has published a review article on the "Past, present aund future of anti-IgE biologics" in the European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Dive into the history of the Omalizumab antibody or take a glimps at the potential of alternative scaffold based drug candidates! Congrats on the nice summary, Pascal!

In an exciting collaboration with our colleagues from the group of Prof. Theodore Jardetzky (Stanford University), we have published findings detailling the modes-of-action of the novel therapeutic anti-IgE antibody Ligelizumab in Nature Communications. Congratulations to both first authors, Pascal and Svetlana and to everyone involved in the study. The article is open access - so, feel free to check it out!

Alex has had the pleasure to support the people from the Berner Generationenhaus to organize an exhibition focusing on the topic "Forever Young - Willkommen im langen Leben", in which they highlight various interesting aspects of the aging process. They do this in a very entertaining but also informative manner. We highly recommend a visit of the exhibition! It's open until March 29, 2020. Here, you'll get more information about the opening hours and entry fees: https://begh.ch/ausstellung

Prof. Gomez from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine has published a rewiew article about "Current Strategies to Inhibit High Affinity FcεRI-Mediated Signaling for the Treatment of Allergic Disease" in Frontiers in Immunology featuring a lot of our work. Take a look this nice summary.

Current Opinion in Immunology has published a special issue on allergy and hypersensitivity. Together with Prof. Onur Boyman and Dr. Mario Noti, Alex served as editor of this issue. We are grateful to all the authors, who helped to put this update on allergy and hypersensitivity together. Enjoy reading!