Matthew Altman, MD: Examples of Systems Biology Approaches to Allergy Research

During a segment of his HCPLive interview, Matthew Altman, MD, discussed his presentation on systems biology given at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) 2023 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX.

Altman is known for his work as a certified physician at the University of Washington (UW) Medical Center’s Allergy, Asthma and Immunology clinic. He is also a UW assistant professor of allergy and infectious diseases.

“Yesterday, we looked at an example,” he said. “Sort of the canonical manuscript from over a decade ago now from Prescott Woodruff, at UCSF, which was the first to really define the epithelial gene signature of T2-high asthma.”

Altman explained the implications of this example at the time it occurred.

“The key gene features that can really detail that and had a lot of important implications, one of which was showing that only a subset of people with allergies and asthma have a T2 gene signature, but further describing what that T two gene signature is,” he said. “And you know, that was over a decade ago. If you look now, all the biologic drugs that we have are basically targeting that pathway in one form or another.”

These types of advancements helped current drugs come into being, thanks to understanding the biomarkers through this approach.

“And again, I think we're really at a point where my group has now shown in the past year, basically, when you utilize these drugs and utilize a systems biology approach to look at airway transcriptional profiling, you can basically describe who responds, and who doesn't, and why,” he explained.

For more information on Altman’s AAAAI presentation, view the interview above.