Thank you for supporting the COMprehensive Protein Allergen REsource!

For nearly a decade, COMPARE has served as a freely accessible, peer-reviewed, and globally used allergen database, supporting regulatory safety assessments, academic research, and public transparency. This has only been possible through the generous support of a small group of funders. To ensure COMPARE remains open-access and continues to improve, we are seeking broader community support — and your help is essential.

We are working toward an annual fundraising goal of $60,000, with contributions typically ranging from $5,000 to $30,000. Every contribution makes a meaningful impact.

Why COMPARE is Unique — and Worth Supporting:
• Easily downloadable sequence data, available in both FASTA and tabular formats — a convenience not offered by all allergen databases.
• More comprehensive: combines bioinformatics screening, expert literature review, and peer-review-panel evaluation.
• Systematically updated every January, ensuring users have timely access to current, high-quality data.
• Transparency files: full documentation of peer review decisions (accepted and rejected) are publicly available via the “Documentation” tab on www.comparedatabase.org.

What Your Support Enables:
1. Continued open access to this valuable tool for the global regulatory and research community.
2. A highly coordinated 10-month annual update cycle, led by HESI scientific staff, bioinformatic experts, literature search specialists, a panel of academic and clinical allergy experts and a scientific advisory board.
3. Ongoing improvements based on user feedback, such as enhanced sequence search visualizations via the accompanying COMPASS tool (e.g., displaying a summary table for the overall results of the 80-mer alignment – a request we have received, from multiple sources, but are currently unable to implement without additional funding).

Plus: Access to Expertise & Community
As a supporter, you’ll have opportunities to:
• Attend the COMPARE Annual Meeting, where the database process, new updates, and future enhancements are discussed.
• Engage directly with the international panel of allergenicity experts — a rare opportunity to ask questions, share feedback, and network with leaders from academia, government, and industry.
• Explore participation in the COMPARE Steering Team, offering strategic input into the direction and priorities of this one-of-a-kind initiative.

If you have questions or would like to learn more about joining the Steering Team or upcoming meetings, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at compare@hesiglobal.org.

Thank you again for being part of the COMPARE user community. We hope you’ll consider contributing to ensure this trusted resource remains open, current, and impactful.