IDEAL: How early-life immune development shapes vaccine responses and asthma risk
Official title: Proteomics and Metabolomics Core: IDEAL shapes vaccine response, susceptibility to respiratory infectious disease and asthma
Funded at Boston Children's Hospital · NIH-11496688 · Data updated 2026-11-12
A child-focused project that looks at how the developing immune system in early life affects vaccine responses, respiratory infections, and asthma.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Boston Children's Hospital NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project start | March 1, 2026 |
| Project end | February 28, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $138,367 |
| NIH project number | 5U19AI168643-05 |
| Project ID | NIH-11496688 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are infants and young children whose immune development is being studied, or who have a history of asthma, frequent respiratory infections, or poor vaccine responses.
✕Less likely to help
Children without the identified risk trajectories or those not contributing samples or data may not directly benefit.
What this research studies
This project uses samples and data from diverse infant cohorts to map immune endotypes that link vaccine effectiveness, infection-proneness, and asthma risk. It will create molecular profiles from blood and other tissues to identify biomarkers of unfavorable immune trajectories. The goal is to flag which children are at higher risk and point toward potential early interventions.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: Insights from this work could lead to earlier identification of kids at risk for low vaccine response, infections, or asthma and guide personalized prevention strategies.
How similar studies have gone: Previous immune-development studies have shown that early-life immune patterns can predict later health outcomes, supporting this approach.
Where this research is happening
-
Boston Children's Hospital
Boston, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Levy, Ofer — Boston Children's Hospital
- Study coordinator: Levy, Ofer
Related research
Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.
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How childhood immune development affects vaccine response and asthma risk
This study is looking at how children's immune systems grow and change in their early years, and how this affects their reactions to vaccines, chances of getting respiratory infections, and risk of asthma, so we can find ways to help kids stay healthier.
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IDEAL project helps predict vaccine response, infections, and asthma in early childhood
A Child-focused program will collect and share saliva, blood, and tissue samples from diverse infants to find biological patterns that predict how vaccines work, how respiratory infections occur, and who develops asthma.
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Understanding how early-life immune development affects vaccine responses and asthma risk in children
This project uses lab-grown human immune cells from infants and young children to explore why some kids respond poorly to vaccines and are more prone to respiratory infections and asthma.
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Multi-omic endotypes of vaccine response, respiratory infections, and asthma in children
A parent-friendly look at how early-life immune development shapes how kids respond to vaccines and stay free from lung infections and asthma, using advanced biological profiling.
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IDEAL: How the microbiome shapes vaccine response, infections, and asthma in kids
This project uses data from thousands of children to understand how the microbiome affects vaccines, respiratory infections, and asthma.
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IDEAL: How babies’ immune systems shape vaccines, infections and asthma
A large NIH project will build a cloud-based system to map how early-life immune development relates to vaccine responses, respiratory infections, and asthma in children.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.