Research

Our research is focused on understanding the disruption of normal repair processes within the lung which propagate inflammation and tissue remodeling in lung disease.

The research program is based on Targeted Pathology Phenotyping, which uses the morphology of early disease lesions as the “disease phenotype” rather than lung function measurements which are normally used to diagnose lung disease.

The objectives of our research are to provide new approaches to predict risk, diagnose, and discover new treatments to improve the quality of life of asthma and COPD patients. 

The Role of Dysregulated Epithelial and Fibroblast Repair in Lung Airway Remodeling

We have developed and phenotyped several multi-cellular lung disease models to understand the contribution of epithelial cells and fibroblasts to inflammation and remodeling in asthma and COPD.

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Ultra-Resolution Imaging to Understand Small Airways Disease in Asthma and COPD

We use ultra-resolution micro CT imaging to detect microscopic early disease, which is undetectable using current clinical tests. Our recent work highlighted that 41% of the small airways are destroyed by the time patients are diagnosed with mild COPD. This study has been used to initiate a new Lancet Global Commission to identify new approaches to prevent, diagnose and treat early COPD (Dransfield M., et al. Towards eradication of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a Lancet Commission. 2019).

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Spatial, Single-Cell Imaging to Understand Inflammation and Remodeling in Lung Disease

To understand the focal nature of pathology in chronic diseases, we use several imaging methodologies to quantify the 3-dimentional (3D) interactions of cells and the extra cellular matrix (ECM) using confocal, non-linear optical microscopy (NLOM) and imaging mass spectrometry.

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The Human Lung Cell Repository and Human In Vitro Models

Human cell research is highly transnational for understanding disease pathology. To enable such research, we have developed several disease relevant multi-cellular, 3D lung models, and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation funded Human Lung Cell Repository which provides essential cells and tissues for many national and international collaborators.

References:

  • Altered DNA methylation is associated withaberrant gene expression in parenchymalbut not airway fibroblasts isolated fromindividuals with COPD. Clinical Epigenetics (2018) 10:32.