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The serum library of our team is an essential element for our research. This serum library is composed of sera from patients allergic to different allergens, such as wheat, milk, egg or legumes/oilseeds (peanut, pea, bean, lentil, lupin, soy, mustard ...). The serum library also includes so-called 'control' sera from non-allergic patients (atopic and non-atopic).

The sera are used for our various research projects, which have, depending on the project, the following objectives:
-          to identify and characterise the allergenic proteins present in different food products;
-          to characterise the variability of sensitisation to different allergens in a cohort of patients allergic to a given source;
-          to search for sensitisation markers of certain clinical profiles;
-          to follow the evolution of reactivity during the natural course of the disease or during an immunotherapy protocol;
-          to study cross-reactivity between different sources of allergens;
-          to study the genetic variability of allergens in order to search for varieties that could be suitable for certain patients according to their sensitisation profile or serve as a basis for genetic improvement projects;
-          to study the impact of technological treatments, particularly those used in the food industry, on allergenicity;
-          to study the resistance of these allergens to digestion (by humans or bacterial flora).

To carry out this research, the human sera are used in various immunochemical techniques or in cellular models

Research projects that use or have used the serum library

• The Digestion/Aggregation/Allergenicity' project (2012-2016) - scientific leader: Chantal Brossard

Articles :
Claude et al. 2016 : http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2016.02.054.
Claude et al. 2017 : https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jafc.7b00676.
Claude et al. 2019 : https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0963996917308098

• FerALL (2017-2019) - scientific leader: Colette Larré

Article :
El Mecherfi et al. 2021 : https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12602-021-09808-1

• DeepProt (2019-2022) – scientific leader: Hélène Rogniaux

Article :
Cherkaoui et al. 2022 : https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308814622015862

Source of the sera

The sera that make up our serum library are provided to us anonymously by various biological resource centres, medical laboratories or doctors for research purposes only, and always with the consent of the patients concerned. 

The storage of sera in our serum bank is authorised by the French minister of Research under the number DC-2008-809.

Organisation

Scientific Director: Wieneke Dijk, PhD

If you would like to know more about our research projects involving the serum library, please contact us at « serotheque.serall@inrae.fr »