NEW!           SARP PUBLICATIONS  ADDED  JANUARY 2011 
       (To view publications, enter as a patient or medical professional from the links on the left)


SARP is the world’s most comprehensive study of  adults and children with severe asthma, linking 4 leading university centers through a National Institutes of Health-sponsored network. To date, over 1500 asthma patients and healthy individuals have participated.  The network’s mission is to improve the understanding of the causes of severe asthma to lead to improved treatments.

Severe Asthma is a debilitating form of asthma which afflicts up to 15% of asthma sufferers.   It can develop in childhood, often in association with allergies, or come on later in life in relation to respiratory infections,  hormonal changes or environmental exposures.   Unlike "usual" asthma, severe asthma often does not respond well to currently available medications.  Thus, the lives of patients with severe asthma is often dramatically impacted by the burden of their disease.

The Mission of the Severe Asthma Research Program is to improve the understanding of severe asthma such that better treatment approaches can be developed.  SARP is not a clinical trial of new or old drugs.   Rather, its purpose is to gather an extraordinary amount of information ranging from responses to simple questions, to lung function, allergy and blood testing, as well as genetic and lung inflammation testing.   This information,  gathered over a series of 4-6 visits, is    databased along with information from thousands of others.  The data are  analyzed to improve our understanding of this disease and focus the development of new drugs targeted specifically to severe asthma.   Your participation in SARP allows your information to be joined with thousands of others to get a much "bigger picture"  of the causes and processes of severe asthma.