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In This Issue:
Supinda Bunyavanich, MDPhysician-Scientist in Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy in the new BWH Channing Division of Network Medicine
Photos of Supinda Bunyavanich's young son and daughter are taped to her file cabinet. Her kids are never too far from her mind as she sees patients at the hospital and conducts research in the Channing Division of Network Medicine. Children, in general, are at the forefront of Bunyavanich's research. She recently published a study on dust mite allergies and lung function in children with asthma. Bunyavanich studies asthma and allergies by investigating how these conditions occur and progress in various populations.
How did you become interested in studying asthma and allergies?
I have a long-standing interest in the environment and health, particularly as they relate to kids and families. Allergy and asthma are major diseases that have strong environmental components to them. And as you learn more about these diseases, you also find that they run in families, so there is clearly a genetic component. There is an interplay between genes and the environment that we're always trying to figure out, and that interested me.
Your research traverses the globe. What is the advantage of studying people from different parts of the world?
It allows you to examine diverse environmental exposures and genetics. This is important because if you're trying to find environmental and genetic drivers of diseases, like asthma and allergies, there are probably common and different threads in these various populations. So by identifying similarities and differences, you can better understand these diseases.
Can you give us an example?
A lot of people around the world have dust mite allergies. I found that subjects with certain genetic variants who were exposed to dust have a different level of lung function compared to those who had the same genetic variants but were not exposed to dust. You can observe these "gene-by-environment" interactions with allergies and asthma.
How do you think your work will impact society?
As a physician-scientist, I hope my work will change the way we think about the mechanisms underlying asthma and allergies. The research will hopefully help us to better understand how these diseases occur and identify risk factors for them in children.
I hope that in the broader world, my work will also impact how children are taken care of and how health care policy is directed toward managing these diseases. Asthma and allergies are common diseases that affect so many kids and adults. It would be great to focus more attention on them.