Identification of immunologically active peptides from food allergens in sera of allergic patients

The resistance to digestion has been defined as a key feature of potent food allergens[35, 36]. However, the identity and the fate of immunologically active allergen peptides after intestinal absorption remains elusive.The present project aims at identifying digestion-resistant peptides of peanut allergens,which are circulating in the bloodstream ofhealthy and allergic individuals.As a part of the global discipline called Foodomics[37], the PhD candidatewill apply mass spectrometric (MS) -analyses to the determination of allergen peptides in serum samples. One main target of the present project is the development of a MS-based method for peptide analysisof peanut allergens in sera of healthy/allergic individuals–a task, which has so far not been achieved in the scientific field