Jamie Blum, PhD, has always been curious about what we eat and why it matters. Now, as a Salk assistant professor, she’s asking the question at the molecular level, and the answers could one day change how we think about food allergies. Growing up in rural upstate New York, Jamie Blum wasn’t thinking about immunology. She was mostly thinking about snacks—specifically, the ones she wasn’t allowed to have. Her parents kept a strict household when it came to food: no high-fructose corn syrup, no hydrogenated oils. While her friends got the fun stuff, Blum got curious. Why did those ingredients matter? What were they actually doing inside the body? That early question, as it turns out, set the course for her career. Today, Blum runs a lab at the Salk Institute that sits squarely at the intersection of nutrition, plant biology, and immunology. She joined Salk in the fall of 2025, drawn by the Institute’s collaborative culture and its rare willingness to support foundational, open-ended science that most research institutions overlook. After all, before the right treatments can exist, someone must ask the right questions. How did you wind up here, as a scientist at Salk? JB: It has been…