Meet Kendra Wang: Helping Expand Food Allergy Treatment Options Through Summer Research with CAN-FAIT

The Canadian Food Allergy Immunotherapy (FAIT) Foundation is thrilled to welcome Kendra Wang as one of our summer research students for 2026.

Kendra, who grew up in Richmond and is now a Health Sciences student at Queen's University, will spend the summer working with researchers and clinicians at BC Children’s Hospital on a key project exploring new pathways for food allergy treatment.

Kendra brings both academic excellence and personal experience to her work. Having grown out of mild childhood dairy, egg, and peanut allergies herself — alongside her younger siblings — she has seen firsthand how food allergies can shape everyday life.

She also witnessed the impact of food allergies while helping at her family’s Richmond daycare, where she observed how prevalent allergies were among young children, and how they could prevent kids from fully participating in birthday celebrations, cultural events, and other shared experiences. Coming from an Asian cultural background where food is often deeply connected to family, celebration, and community, Kendra says these experiences gave her an even greater appreciation for how isolating food allergies can sometimes feel for children and families.

“Food allergies were the health issue we dealt with most often,” Kendra says. “I saw how isolating they could sometimes be for children and families.”

This summer, Kendra will be studying sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) as a possible “second chance” treatment option for patients who were unable to continue oral immunotherapy (OIT). While OIT has transformed the lives of many food allergy patients, some individuals are unable to tolerate the treatment and are left with strict allergen avoidance as their only option.

SLIT offers a promising alternative.

Unlike OIT, SLIT uses very small amounts of allergen solution placed under the tongue using a dropper. Treatments are given less frequently and in smaller doses, with all protocols carefully supervised by physicians.

Working under the mentorship of Dr. Lianne Soller and Dr. Raymond Mak, Kendra will conduct detailed chart reviews using patient data from the Canadian FAIT Foundation registry to better understand which patients may benefit most from SLIT after unsuccessful OIT.

Her research will examine factors including:

• Whether the treatment works more effectively for some food allergens than others

• Whether there are gender differences in treatment tolerance

• The impact of related conditions such as asthma, eczema, and eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE)

• Whether previous anaphylactic reactions during OIT help determine when treatment is safe

Kendra hopes to become either a family physician or, in particular, a pediatric allergist, inspired in part by her work with the team at BC Children’s Hospital. She says she chose Queen’s Health Sciences program because of its strong early clinical focus, including first-year cadaver anatomy and pharmacology courses.

Outside the lab and classroom, Kendra enjoys playing guitar, reading, and running. In fact, she’ll be joining Team Allergy at the BC Children’s Hospital Family Fun Run on June 7.

We’re incredibly excited to have Kendra join the CAN-FAIT research team this summer and look forward to seeing the impact of her work as we continue expanding safe, evidence-based treatment options for food allergy patients and families.

Welcome, Kendra!