Professor Alexandra Santos MD MSc MRCPCH FHEA PhD

Biography

Professor Alexandra Santos is Professor of Paediatric Allergy at King’s College London and Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Allergy at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital. 

Alexandra qualified in Medicine from the University of Coimbra and completed her PhD in Allergy and Immunology at King’s College London, supervised by Professor Gideon Lack. Over the years, Alexandra has continued to combine clinical activity in Paediatric Allergy with clinical and laboratory translational research into food allergy.

The Santos Lab aims to improve:

1. The accuracy and safety of food allergy diagnosis.
2. Our understanding of the mechanisms of food allergy and oral tolerance in IgE-sensitised children to identify new targets for definitive treatment of food allergy.
3. Our understanding of the biological basis of anxiety in food allergy. 

Alexandra has received multiple prestigious awards from the Medical Research Council (MRC), including:

• MRC Clinical Research Training Fellowship
• MRC Centenary Early Career Award
• MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship
• MRC Transition Fellowship

And additional funding from:

• NIH
• NIAID through the Immune Tolerance Network
• Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE)
• The Wellcome Trust
• The European Commission
• Asthma UK as Principal Investigator of Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma. 

Alexandra was part of the first cohort of the Sustain Programme of the Academy of Medical Sciences. Alexandra is the Chair of the Board of the Food Allergy Interest Group of European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) and of the upcoming EAACI Food Allergy Guidelines.