The American Academy of Asthma, Allergy & Immunology has bestowed its prestigious ARTrust award to Johns Hopkins Children’s Center immunologist Pamela Guerrerio, M.D., Ph.D., for her ongoing research in the field of allergy and immunology.  

The mission of the academy’s Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Education and Research Trust (ARTrust) is to find treatments and cures for the millions of people suffering from allergies, asthma and related disorders of the immune system by supporting scientists who conduct innovative research.  

Given annually, the ARTrust award provides $300,000 over three years to outstanding scientists in the field of allergy and immunology who work toward improving treatments and discovering new therapies for allergy, asthma and other immunologic disorders.  

“This award is a great honor, and it couldn’t have gone to a more deserving scientist,” said Robert Wood, M.D., director of Allergy & Immunology at Hopkins Children’s, a mentor and a collaborator of Guerrerio’s. “Dr. Guerrerio’s promising investigation into the basic mechanisms of food allergy development, as well as into the genetic and environmental causes of the disease, has provided us with fascinating new clues that have already illuminated novel potential treatments for food allergy and other allergic diseases.” 

“The ARTrust award will allow Dr. Guerrerio to continue her exciting work toward unraveling the basic mechanisms that cause allergy with the potential to improve the health of millions of allergy sufferers in the United States and around the world,” Wood added.  

Guerrerio received a doctoral degree in human genetics and a medical degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She completed a pediatric residency and a fellowship in pediatric allergy and immunology at Johns Hopkins. In 2009, she joined the Pediatrics faculty in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Hopkins. 

Allergies affect one in six Americans, and one in 15 Americans have asthma. Some 7.5 million people in the United States suffer from food allergies, according to estimates from the National Institutes of Health.