Crucial discovery could lead to new treatments for asthma

Irish scientists have helped make a crucial discovery that could lead to new treatments for asthma, a disease that affects almost half a million people in this country.

Prof Padraic Fallon from Trinity College Dublin and his collaborators in Britain have found a pathway leading to the development of white blood cells that cause allergic inflammation.

Prof Fallon said the discovery opened up avenues to develop treatments for asthma and other allergic diseases.