Around 4 % of the population suffer from IgE-mediated food allergies in Western countries and the number of food-allergenic people is increasing. Individuals with certain pollen allergies may also suffer from a sensitisation to proteins in the foods. As an example a person sensitised to the major birch pollen allergen, Bet v 1, is often sensitised to its homologues, such as the major allergens ...

The T-box transcription factor, T-bet promotes the differentiation of short-lived effector CD8(+) T cells at the expense of central memory cells. How T-bet mediates these effects, and whether they are directly caused by T-bet alone are unknown, because expression of T-bet requires stimulation of the T cell by inflammatory and growth cytokines, which may have T-bet-independent functions involvin...

An inappropriate balance between T-helper (Th)1 and Th2 cytokine production underlies inflammatory changes that result in airway disease. Expression of the T-box transcription factor T-bet regulates differentiation of Th cells and production of Th1 cytokines, particularly IFNγ. T-bet-deficient mice develop airway hyperreactivity, undergo airway remodeling, and exhibit defects in IFNγ production...

Singlet fission is a process in which a singlet exciton converts into two triplet excitons. To investigate this phenomenon, we synthesized two covalently linked 5-ethynyl-tetracene (ET) dimers with differing degrees of intertetracene overlap: BET-X, with large, cofacial overlap of tetracene π-orbitals, and BET-B, with twisted arrangement between tetracenes exhibits less overlap between the tetr...

Background: Alongside hazel, alder and birch pollen allergies, ash pollen allergy is a relevant cause of hay fever during spring in the European region. For some considerable time, ash pollen allergy was not routinely investigated and its clinical relevance may well have been underestimated, particularly since ash and birch tree pollination times are largely the same. Ash pollen extracts are no...

(e.g. the extent of indoor/outdoor living, pets and eating habits). The number of underlying variables is constantly growing, and this hampers comparisons between epidemiological studies on different regions. Even more important, employing diagnostic extracts as tools for detecting allergic sensitizations (by skin prick test or serum IgE) carries inherent problems and can create misleading resu...