He’s now looking to help patients better manage allergic asthma through a study that will follow some 2,000 Hamilton-area infants at least five years and likely into adulthood. Along with colleagues Dr. Malcolm Sears and Dr. P.J. Subbarao, Dr. O’Byrne hopes to determine factors that predispose people to developing allergies and asthma as a step toward reducing the prevalence of childhood asthma, which now affects 10-15 per cent of the population in the developed world.

He suffered from asthma as a child, and has served as a guinea pig in his own research studies. “Eliminating the disease is, I think, improbable in my lifetime. But I’m very sure we can reduce the prevalence, reduce the risk of children developing it -- and even for those that do develop it, reduce the burden of disease in those children,” says Dr. O’Byrne. He is holder of the Moran Campbell Chair in Respiratory Medicine and executive director of the Firestone Regional Chest and Allergy Unit.

His new research follows up on a landmark study that showed the benefits of early and sustained therapy for treating patients with mild asthma. He has also studied the use of steroids in controlling the disease later in life.

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