Associate Professor Rachel Peters is head of the epidemiology stream of the Population Allergy research group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. She leads a research program using large, longitudinal, population-based studies to understand the causes and consequences of childhood food allergy.

She is principal investigator of the longitudinal HealthNuts study, which has followed a cohort of over 5,000 children from infancy to adolescence. HealthNuts aims to describe the natural history of food allergy and understand the adverse consequences of food allergy on children’s future health. She also leads the first follow-up of the EarlyNuts study, which aims to understand the impact of changing infant feeding guidelines for food allergy prevention, on the prevalence of food allergy and other health outcomes. Associate Professor Peters is custodian of the SchoolNuts study which examined food allergy and other allergic diseases in 10-14 students. Together these cohorts total over 17,000 participants.

Collectively, her research program aims to identify risk factors and biomarkers of food allergy persistence and resolution, understand why adolescents are at high risk of recurrent and severe food-induced allergic reactions, quantify the adverse consequences of infant food allergy on children’s future health, particularly lung and psychosocial health and measure the impact of food allergy prevention strategies on children’s health. Associate Professor Peters also leads or co-leads several projects aiming to improve the diagnosis of food allergy, understand the immune mechanisms underpinning the natural resolution of food allergy, and collaborate on randomised control trials (RCTs) on the prevention and treatment of food allergy.