Alexandra F. Santos is a Senior Clinical Lecturer and MRC Clinician Scientist at King’s College London and an Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Allergy at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Alexandra qualified in Medicine from the University of Coimbra and completed a PhD in Allergy and Immunology at King's College London, supervised by Professor Gideon Lack. The focuses of her thesis were diagnostic markers of clinical allergy versus sensitisation to peanut, including the basophil activation test, IgE and IgG4 testing. Alexandra continues to combine clinical activity with clinical and laboratory research to improve the diagnosis and the immune mechanisms of food allergy and oral tolerance.
Alexandra has received prestigious awards from the Medical Research Council (MRC): an MRC Clinical Research Training Fellowship, an MRC Centenary Early Career Award and recently an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship. She has also obtained funding from the Immune Tolerance Network/NIAID for her work in the LEAP Study. Alexandra has been very active in the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), where she has joined various task-forces to generate guidelines for patients’ care and is a member of the Board of the Food Allergy Interest Group and of the EAACI Exam Committee and was previously the Chair of the Junior Members, member of the Board of the Paediatric Section and of the EAACI Executive Committee. Her main research interests are: food allergy, anaphylaxis, allergy diagnosis and allergy prevention.