Jon Genuneit was born in Hamburg in 1978. He graduated medical school in Ulm and has been conducting research at the Institute of Epidemiology at Ulm University for the past 5 years. He is an active member of several scientific societies, both in the respiratory and epidemiological field. In 2006 he received the award for junior scientists of the German Association for Epidemiology. His main research interests are the epidemiology of asthma and allergies with a focus on environmental and genetic determinants. Apart from the PASTURE / FORALLVENT / EFRAIM studies he is among others actively involved in the international multi-centre projects ISAAC and GABRIEL.