Abstract: The present invention relates to agents capable of treating or preventing an allergic disorder in an animal and a method of screening for these agents. In particular, the present invention relates to an isolated nucleic acid molecule comprising (a) an isolated nucleic acid molecule whose expression is modulated in a mammal suffering from or at elevated risk of developing an allergic condition, such that the level of expression of the nucleic acid differs from that in a mammal which is not suffering from or at elevated risk of developing the allergic condition, in which the nucleic acid comprises a sequence selected from the group consisting of sequences identified by probes 243610 at on human chromosome 9q21.13 at locus 138255, 1556097 at on human chromosome 15q25.2 and 242743 at on human chromosome 16p12.

Abstract: The present invention relates to methods for diagnosing an allergic disorder, predicting the development of an allergic disorder in an animal, monitoring the progress of therapy targeted at an allergic disorder, classification of the allergic disorder into one or more clinical/immunological phenotypes, and/or determining the potentional responsiveness of individual animals suffering from or at risk of an allergic disorder to particular forms of therapy. In particular, the present invention relates to a method of diagnosing and/or predicting the development of an allergic disorder in an animal, comprising the step of analysing a biological sample from the animal to determine the level of activation of one or more allergy-associated genes, in which the level of activation is diagnostic of the allergic disorder or predicative of the relative risk for the development of an allergic disorder in the animal.