The Michigan Sibling Immunity Birth Study (M-SIBS): Study design protocol for a unique food allergy birth cohort.

BACKGROUND

Food allergy is a rapidly escalating public health concern, yet the biologic pathways that link early-life exposures with disease onset remain poorly defined. No existing food-allergy birth cohort has yet paired criterion-standard oral food challenges with comprehensive, family-wide multiomics profiling.

OBJECTIVE

The Michigan Sibling Immunity Birth Study (M-SIBS) was established to elucidate early-life genetic and environmental interactions that drive disease. By enrolling entire families, including atopic siblings, the study leverages shared genetics, perinatal sampling, and household exposures to identify modifiable factors in food allergy development.

METHODS

M-SIBS is a prospective birth cohort at the University of Michigan that will enroll 1000 infants who have a first-degree relative with atopic disease. Mothers are recruited prenatally along with biologic fathers and siblings. Infants are then followed through 36 months of life. Extensive longitudinal phenotyping includes (1) serial skin prick and serum-specific IgE testing to the 9 most common food allergens at designated intervals; (2) standardized oral food challenges to confirm any positive result; (3) biospecimen collection at specified time points prebirth and postbirth; and (3) validated clinical, psychosocial, and environmental surveys administered longitudinally. It is designed to integrate genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, metabolomics, and microbiome data into a single multiomics framework across the family unit.

CONCLUSIONS

M-SIBS integrates criterion-standard clinical diagnostics for food allergy with family-based multiomics to generate an unprecedented data set on the earliest drivers of food allergy.