Dear friends,

In a recent publication in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, EAACI together with AAAAI published a PRACTALL paper discussing the issue of understanding the subgroups of asthma. The terminology “asthma phenotype” has received extensive attention over the last years, but the term “phenotype” relates only to “observable characteristics”, and does not take into account which core molecular mechanism is causing the disease in each individual. This publication attempts to encompass those thoughts into a series of examples, and is arguing that a fundamentally different approach to studying clinical mechanisms of asthma.

Please read it and comment, the debate is crucial to move forward.

Best regards,
Jan Lötvall
EAACI President

Jan Lötvall is also blogging at janlotvall.wordpress.com