Food allergy affects millions of people, yet surprisingly little is known about why the immune system develops tolerance to most foods while mounting harmful responses to a small subset of dietary proteins. This project combines expertise in plant biology, protein engineering, and immunology to investigate the molecular basis of food tolerance. We will develop new methods to produce individual proteins from common foods such as peanuts, corn, wheat, and soy, and use these proteins to identify and characterize antibodies and immune cells that recognize them in healthy and allergic individuals. By comparing proteins that commonly trigger allergy with those that rarely do, we aim to uncover the features that promote immune tolerance and identify immune signatures associated with protection from allergy. These studies will provide new insight into how the immune system interprets food, establish broadly useful tools for studying food-specific immune responses, and lay the foundation for future strategies to prevent or treat allergic disease by harnessing the body's natural mechanisms of tolerance.