Benjamin Casterline, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Dermatology at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, was recently a recipient of the Physician Scientist Career Development Award by the Dermatology Foundation.
Casterline’s research, “Alpha-gal Temporal Longitudinal Antibody Study,” or ATLAS, is a part of Mizzou’s efforts to help patients with alpha-gal syndrome — a potentially life-threatening red-meat allergy caused by lone star tick bites. He recently received a grant from the Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences to try to get a better understanding of the syndrome.
The Dermatology Foundation award will fund the ATLAS study, which addresses a puzzling clinical gap: some people with detectable alpha-gal antibodies appear asymptomatic, while others suffer life-threatening reactions. Casterline's team will enroll patients in a longitudinal cohort to test whether there are protective alpha-gal antibodies—not just allergy-triggering IgE—that predict who is truly at risk, potentially enabling personalized dietary counseling for the first time.
While seeing patients at MU Health Care’s clinics in Columbia, Jefferson City and Versailles, Missouri, Casterline collects blood samples from patients with alpha-gal syndrome and uses artificial intelligence to determine any patterns or trends across patient demographics.
Founded in 1964, the Dermatology Foundation is the largest private funder of research in dermatology. Overall, the organization has awarded more than 2,600 research awards and invested more than $90 million in dermatologic research.
