Matthew Altman, MD: Systems Biology Approaches to Allergic Disease

Matthew Altman, MD, spoke in an HCPLive interview on some of the main takeaways from his presentation on systems biology from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) 2023 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX.

He serves as both as a certified physician at the University of Washington (UW) Medical Center’s Allergy, Asthma and Immunology clinic and as a UW assistant professor of allergy and infectious diseases.

Altman explained that he tailored his presentation to “people who are interested in either understanding these methods, understanding how to digest this type of research and understanding what role it's going to play now and in the immediate future in diagnosing, treating and just generally understanding allergic and immunologic diseases.”

He added that the main objective was to teach them about the nuts and bolts of how this kind of research is conducted and what it means.

“Specifically, we went through a number of different methods,” he said. “We went through a number of sort of seminal or canonical examples in our field of how omics and systems biology has been used, in particular, to better understand asthma.”

Altman elaborated on some of his key points, summarizing his thoughts on systems biology, both in the present and future in the medical field.

“You know, there's not a journal that comes out without some systems, method implementation, you know, all the high impact papers,” he said. “I won't say all, but a lot of them utilize these sorts of methods. You know, it's getting to that point where it's starting to move into the diagnostic realm, into the treatment realm, and into the drug discovery realm.”

Altman further explained that, in the near future, there may be omics profiles from birth.

“There are a lot of, you know, technical and social issues to address there,” he said. “But the fundamental concept that this could help and would help and (that) we have the knowledge to utilize this in a clinical manner, is around the corner.”

To find out more about Altman’s AAAAI presentation, view the full interview above.