The PhARF (Phadia Allergy Research Forum) Award Ceremony took place at the EAACI meeting in London June 7.

This year the prize was split and we have two winners sharing the prize; Dr Christopher Kepley, Luna Innovations Inc, Danville, VA, USA and Dr Nikolaos Papadopoulos, University of Athens, Greece.

The Scientific Committee of PhARF considered both Dr Kepley’s and Dr Papadopoulos’ research in the forefront of international science in our discipline and the quality and indepence of their research is well ascertained.

Dr Kepley has focused on finding new ways of "turning off" the allergic response by inhibiting the IgE receptor on mast cells and basophils.

Dr Papadopoulos has provided important evidence to explain persistence of asthma through IgE-mediated susceptibility to virus infections.

Magnus Lundberg shortly described the history of PhARF and the winners were announced by Prof Walter Canonica, Chairman of PhARF Scientific Committee.