{"id":11,"date":"2025-11-11T10:39:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T18:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insidemultisite.salk.edu\/spring-2026\/?p=11"},"modified":"2026-08-11T19:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T02:58:07","slug":"jamie-blum-three-to-five-pounds-of-immune-decisions-every-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inside.salk.edu\/fall-2026\/jamie-blum-three-to-five-pounds-of-immune-decisions-every-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamie Blum: Three to five pounds of immune decisions every day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<details class=\"wp-block-details is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary>Blum talks about research, which asks how the body tolerates the things we eat and why that sometimes goes wrong.<\/summary>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Jamie Blum, PhD, has always been curious about what we eat and why it matters. Now, as a Salk assistant professor, she\u2019s asking the question at the molecular level, and the answers could one day change how we think about <span style=\"white-space: nowrap;\">food allergies.<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-container-core-column-is-layout-343acf9e wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<p>Growing up in rural upstate New York, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salk.edu\/scientist\/jamie-blum\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jamie Blum<\/a> wasn\u2019t thinking about immunology. She was mostly thinking about snacks\u2014specifically, the ones she wasn\u2019t 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 <span style=\"white-space: nowrap;\">the body?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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\u2019s 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 <span style=\"white-space: nowrap;\">right questions.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-container-core-column-is-layout-343acf9e wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-medium\" style=\"margin-top:20px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"552\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/inside.salk.edu\/fall-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/11\/2026-inside-salk-fall-observations-blum-552x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1107\" srcset=\"https:\/\/inside.salk.edu\/fall-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/11\/2026-inside-salk-fall-observations-blum-552x600.jpg 552w, https:\/\/inside.salk.edu\/fall-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/11\/2026-inside-salk-fall-observations-blum-942x1024.jpg 942w, https:\/\/inside.salk.edu\/fall-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/11\/2026-inside-salk-fall-observations-blum-768x835.jpg 768w, https:\/\/inside.salk.edu\/fall-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/11\/2026-inside-salk-fall-observations-blum-1413x1536.jpg 1413w, https:\/\/inside.salk.edu\/fall-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/11\/2026-inside-salk-fall-observations-blum.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 552px) 100vw, 552px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#54123b\"><strong>How did you wind up here, as a scientist <span style=\"white-space: nowrap;\">at Salk?<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>JB: It has been a winding road, which I think is actuallywhat makes the work interesting. I did my undergraduate degree at Cornell and then stayed there for my PhD in molecular nutrition, where I was studying how nutrients affect muscle stem cells. Then I went to Stanford for my postdoc, working in a chemical engineering lab focused on how the immune system reacts to food proteins. That combination\u2014nutrition, plant chemistry, immunology\u2014is a little unusual, but it maps almost perfectly onto what I\u2019m doing now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What drew me to Salk specifically was the interdisciplinary environment. My research touches plant biology, metabolism, and immunology all at once, and Salk has real depth in all three of those areas. It\u2019s also genuinely collaborative. That\u2019s rarer than <span style=\"white-space: nowrap;\">it sounds.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#54123b\"><strong>Your lab focuses on food allergies. Can you explain what\u2019s actually happening in the body when someone develops one?<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>JB: Your immune system is constantly making decisions. It screens everything entering your body and asks: Is this safe, or is it a threat? That process happens most intensely in the intestine, because most of us are eating three to five pounds of food every day. There\u2019s always a chance something harmful is in there, so the immune system has to stay vigilant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When things go well, the immune system recognizes food proteins as safe and mounts what we call a regulatory response\u2014essentially, it stands down. When things go wrong, it decides those proteins are dangerous and launches an immune attack. That\u2019s a food allergy. What we don\u2019t fully understand yet is exactly what tips the scales one way or the other. That\u2019s the question we\u2019re trying to answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#54123b\"><strong>What\u2019s the current scientific thinking on how food allergies develop, and what advice do you give to parents who ask you <span style=\"white-space: nowrap;\">about it?<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>JB: The field has actually gone through a major shift on this. For years, the clinical guidance was that parents should avoid giving young children major allergens, like peanuts and tree nuts, until they were around three years old. The idea was that an infant\u2019s immune system wasn\u2019t ready. We now know that was exactly backwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The earlier a baby is exposed to an allergen, the less likely they are to develop an allergy to it. So my advice to any parent who\u2019s worried: Once your baby starts eating solid foods, that\u2019s the time to start introducing those foods. Early and often, not avoided.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote has-white-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-d8a5f6ba1c3017f3ecdd6ab3e7fca641\" style=\"border-style:none;border-width:0px;background-color:#54123b;padding-top:40px;padding-bottom:40px\"><blockquote><p>\u201cMy research touches plant biology, metabolism, and immunology all at once, and Salk has real depth in all three of those areas. It\u2019s also genuinely collaborative. That\u2019s rarer than it sounds.\u201d<\/p><cite><strong>Jamie Blum<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-container-core-column-is-layout-343acf9e wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-31b1b09e8b09185c02711f86270a9d62\" style=\"color:#54123b\"><strong>So what\u2019s missing from our understanding? What is your lab actually trying to figure out?<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>JB: We know that the proteins in food are what the immune system directly recognizes. But we think proteins alone aren\u2019t enough to drive a full allergic response. There seem to be other molecules\u2014what we\u2019re calling adjuvant molecules\u2014that act as a kind of amplifier or trigger alongside the proteins. We\u2019re trying to identify what those molecules are and how <span style=\"white-space: nowrap;\">they work.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A lot of those molecules likely come from plants. I did my postdoc in a plant chemistry lab, so I\u2019ve spent a lot of time thinking about the compounds plants produce and what they do once they\u2019re inside us. That\u2019s a big part of what makes our approach at Salk distinctive\u2014we\u2019re bringing plant biology into a question that most immunology labs wouldn\u2019t think to look at from that angle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-d8526887ef73b4f21973af8c33131fab\" style=\"color:#54123b\"><strong>You mentioned that diet has emerged as a predictor of health more broadly. What don\u2019t we know yet about the connection between what we eat and conditions like Alzheimer\u2019s disease?<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>JB: We have pretty good evidence that certain dietary patterns, a Mediterranean diet, for example, are associated with lower levels of systemic inflammation and some protection against chronic diseases, including Alzheimer\u2019s. But \u201cassociated with\u201d is not the same as \u201cwe <span style=\"white-space: nowrap;\">understand why.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The honest answer is that we don\u2019t yet have a clear, mechanistic explanation for how specific foods or molecules in those diets produce those protective effects. That\u2019s exactly the kind of foundational question that needs to be answered before anyone can develop a targeted intervention. You can\u2019t engineer a solution to a problem you haven\u2019t mapped yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-306c4032cee99f59e4a143c0266732d6\" style=\"color:#54123b\"><strong>What are you most excited to learn in the next five to 10 years?<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>JB: Within my own lab, I\u2019m hoping we can build a fairly complete picture of what those adjuvant molecules from food actually are and start to understand the rules governing when the immune system decides to tolerate something versus react to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More broadly, I\u2019m excited about the possibility of connecting specific molecules in our diet to specific changes in the body\u2014a particular immune cell responding to a particular compound, for instance. As the tools for large-scale biological data analysis get better, those kinds of precise relationships are becoming possible to see for the first time. We\u2019re at a moment where the questions people have been asking for decades are finally answerable.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s a remarkable situation to be <span style=\"white-space: nowrap;\">doing science.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jamie Blum, PhD, has always been curious about what we eat and why it matters. Now, as a Salk assistant professor, she\u2019s 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\u2019t thinking about immunology. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-hero-slider","category-in-this-issue","category-observations"],"blocksy_meta":{"content_style_source":"inherit","has_hero_section":"enabled","hero_section":"type-1","styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"[data-prefix=\"single_blog_post\"] .entry-header .page-title {--theme-font-size:30px;} [data-prefix=\"single_blog_post\"] .entry-header .entry-meta {--theme-font-weight:600;--theme-text-transform:uppercase;--theme-font-size:12px;--theme-line-height:1.3;}","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":{"Albert Sans":["n4","n6"]},"version":6},"page_structure_type":"default"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jamie Blum: Three to five pounds of immune decisions every day - Inside Salk | Fall 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/inside.salk.edu\/fall-2026\/jamie-blum-three-to-five-pounds-of-immune-decisions-every-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jamie Blum: Three to five pounds of immune decisions every day - Inside Salk | Fall 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jamie Blum, PhD, has always been curious about what we eat and why it matters. 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