Preventing fall asthma attacks in city children with one seasonal anti-IgE shot
Official title: District of Columbia Childhood Asthma in Urban Settings - Clinical Research Center
Funded at Children's Research Institute · NIH-11319780 · Data updated 2026-11-12
Giving one anti-IgE (omalizumab) dose before the fall to children with allergic asthma who live in urban areas to try to reduce asthma attacks.
Quick facts
| Grant type | U01 cooperative agreement |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Children's Research Institute NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Washington, United States) |
| Project start | April 15, 2021 |
| Project end | March 31, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $388,447 |
| NIH project number | 5U01AI160090-06 |
| Project ID | NIH-11319780 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Children in urban Washington, DC areas who have allergic, exacerbation-prone asthma (roughly preschool to elementary age) and a history of fall worsening are the best candidates.
✕Less likely to help
Children without allergic sensitization, with non-allergic asthma, adults, or those not prone to seasonal exacerbations are unlikely to benefit from this single-dose seasonal approach.
What this research studies
If your child joins, they may get a single dose of anti-IgE (omalizumab) in the fall and researchers will follow how often colds and asthma flare-ups happen. The team will collect nasal samples during viral colds to study how the nose germs and inflammation change with and without the treatment. This is a pilot effort at a Washington, DC site that links clinical care with lab testing to learn why seasonal exacerbations happen. Results will help plan larger trials and may point to ways to prevent falls with targeted medicine.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this approach could lower fall-time asthma attacks, emergency visits, and missed school days for allergic urban children.
How similar studies have gone: Anti-IgE therapy has reduced asthma attacks in prior trials, but using a single seasonal dose in the fall is a newer, pilot-tested approach with limited existing data.
Where this research is happening
-
Children's Research Institute
Washington, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Sheehan, William James — Children's Research Institute
- Study coordinator: Sheehan, William James
Related research
Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.