Research involving Hutterite and Amish communities has led to new understandings of innate asthma immunity in children, according to a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine co-authored by UChicago professors Carole Ober and Anne Sperling, postdoc Cara Hrusch, and graduate student Michelle Stein.
Because they share remarkable genetic similarities, but Hutterite children suffer higher incidences of asthma than Amish do, the two communities offer a unique opportunity for studying the role that microbiota and environment play in innate asthma immunity.
Ober, Sperling, Hrusch, and Stein contributed equally to the article, along with researchers from other institutions. Graduate student Katie Igartua and Rebecca Anderson, M.S., both in the Ober lab, and professor Jack Gilbert also contributed.