IDEAL: how immune development in infancy shapes vaccines, infections, and asthma
Official title: Immune development in early life (IDEAL) shapes vaccine response, respiratory infectious diseaseand asthma
Funded at Boston Children's Hospital · NIH-11481579 · Data updated 2026-11-12
A multi-part NIH grant will study how babies’ immune systems develop to influence vaccine responses, respiratory infections, and asthma outcomes.
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 10, 2022 |
| Project end | February 28, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $271,000 |
| NIH project number | 3U19AI168643-05S1 |
| Project ID | NIH-11481579 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Infants and young children from diverse cohorts who are part of the IDEAL study and related international cohorts, with data and/or biosamples available.
✕Less likely to help
Children not represented in the included cohorts or without access to the study data may not directly benefit.
What this research studies
This project follows infants from several large cohorts around the world to identify immune patterns that predict how well vaccines work, how prone a child is to respiratory infections, and who might develop asthma. It uses computer-based analyses, epigenetic studies, and lab experiments to connect immune development with real-world health outcomes. The goal is to find biomarkers that could guide personalized vaccination and early interventions for children at risk. The study involves data and samples from both U.S. and international sites, including high- and low-resource settings, to ensure findings apply broadly.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could lead to personalized vaccination strategies and early interventions to reduce asthma risk and severe respiratory infections in early childhood.
How similar studies have gone: Previous infant-immune studies have identified links between early immune development and later health outcomes, but this project aims to identify robust endotypes across diverse populations.
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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GLP-1 receptor agonists as immune targets to treat asthma in lean and obese adults
Aims to understand how GLP-1R‑agonist diabetes medicines may directly calm immune cells to reduce asthma in adults who are lean or obese.
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Understanding how a type of immune cell called ILC2s affect asthma in adults
This grant studies how group 2 innate lymphoid cells influence asthma in adults to help identify new ways to manage airway inflammation.
-
Expanding understanding of asthma in kids through airways and blood profiling
A study at UC San Francisco will profile blood and nasal/sputum samples from 300 youth (including 200 with asthma) over a year to understand how environmental and social factors influence asthma in marginalized communities.
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Preventing and improving asthma care for children in urban communities
This program will try several approaches — from giving helpful bacteria to babies to allergy immunotherapy and advanced airway testing — to prevent and better treat asthma in children who live in cities.
-
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.
-
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.
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.