Aims of Allergy and Immunology Center：
Allergic diseases such as atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis, asthma and food allergy are increasing gradually in recent years. It has become a major problem of national health issue. Therefore, it is of great need to study the pathogenic mechanisms of allergic diseases and to develop novel and effective therapy aggressively. In the past two years, the authority of National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) has been dedicated to the innovated and outstanding clinical research and the investigation of new technique. To become one the very best medical center in Asia is the goal for National Taiwan University Hospital. With great expectation, we establish the Allergy and Immunology Center. To integrate physicians and researchers who are interested in allergic and immunologic diseases in our hospital and further to cooperate with foreign research centers, we strongly hope NTUH Allergy and Immunology Center to become a leading center in Aisa or even in the world in the foreseeing future.
NTUH Allergy and Immunology Center Mission Statement：
- Medical techniques. Department of Pediatrics of NTUH has excellent performance in the immunotherapy for allergic diseases. We are going to continue the development of novel medical techniques, including：
- Immunotherapy for allergic diseases. Traditionally, to alleviate allergic symptoms, the patients received immunotherapy by intradermal injection of allergen. But there are side effects such as asthma attack, urticaria or even anaphylactic shock. It was also very bothering for the parents and children to come back to the hospital and receive injection every one or two weeks. Therefore, we are investigating novel therapeutic methods, such as sublingual immunotherapy or other therapy inducing oral mucosal tolerance by developing a more suitable allergen for ingestion.
- Active development of new drugs for allergic diseases, including clinical trials of world famous pharmaceutical companies. We have established the models for drug testing and laboratory certification. We also plan to cooperate with biotechnology companies to develop new drugs for allergic diseases.
- Research on pathogenesis and regulatory mechanisms of allergic diseases. The pathogenesis of allergic diseases was thought to be related to the type 2 T (TH2) cell activity. But the details are not very clear, especially regulatory mechanisms. We will investigate the role of regulatory T cells (Treg cells) in the pathogenesis of allergic diseases. We are interested in regulatory T cells induced by mucosal immunity to regulate immune-mediated diseases. It has been demonstrated that the regulatory mechanism of mucosal immune system in response to foreign allergen or antigen is different from other system. If we understand better about the exact mechanisms of inducing immune response or inducing tolerance, we might target new targeting genes for clinical application.
- Research on rheumatic diseases. We investigate regulatory T cells for the treatment of rheumatic diseases. In the study of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), we used dendritic cells to define the antigenic determinants of auto-reactive T cells. Using such method, the peptide therapy had good therapeutic effect in lupus mice.
- Diagnosis of allergic and immune diseases. We establish methods of diagnosis of allergic diseases by using newly discovered allergen, especially unique allergen in Taiwan. We plan to apply the medical engineering technique for the development of novel diagnostic methods.
- Establishment a best training center for subspecialists/fellow of allergy, rheumatology and immunology. Training young physicians is the best guarantee to the patients who can receive better medical care in the future. We took action to make NTUH Allergy Center become a national training center for subspecialists/fellows. We welcome young physicians in Taiwan and from foreign countries for fellow training.