HLI’s Bruce McManus Cardiovascular Biobank (BMCB) collects human cardiovascular tissue specimens for research purposes. These anonymized and fully consented samples are preserved to standard biobanking protocol and are provided to researchers at the local, national, and international levels for their projects. We sat down with Coco Ng and Tiffany Chang, Biobank Technician and Biobank Assistant, to discuss their work at the BMCB and beyond.

What are your educational backgrounds?

Coco Ng: I have a Bachelor of Science Degree in Food, Nutrition, and Health, and I did a co-op here at HLI in my third year of undergrad. After I graduated, I continued working here as a laboratory technician thanks to that experience.

Tiffany Chang: I also have a Bachelor’s Degree and was a co-op student here! I just graduated in June, and I majored in Behavioral Neuroscience.

What is a typical day like for you at HLI?

CN: I should start by explaining what a biobank is. Imagine a library, but instead of books, we have cardiovascular specimens we collect, like valves and appendages from surgeries or explanted hearts from heart transplants. We store and preserve them at the biobank so that researchers can use these samples for their own research projects. For our everyday duties, we would go to the operating room and we would collect samples from cardiac surgery, and then we would biobank them and process them.

How long do the specimens last for?

CN: We store them indefinitely! Right now, we have roughly 19,000 specimens stored with us.

TC: We still have hearts from the 1960s or 70s…

CN: We have a range of hearts, from infants to adults, with a variety of heart conditions like congenital disease, congestive heart failure, and a lot of rare diseases, so we keep basically anything and everything. We work with the Anatomical Pathology department, where they help us with writing pathology reports on the specimens. That gives us a review or a macroscopic analysis of what the sample is, which could be useful and helpful for researchers in the lab.

What is one of the proudest moments of your career so far?

CN: For me, it’s being involved with my first paper. This was during the pandemic, so COVID was still relatively new, and having my name on a paper about its effects on the heart and having it published was my proudest moment.

TC: My Research Day presentation was a really interesting project for me because I majored in the social sciences, so there wasn’t much that I applied from what I studied to the biobank until that project, because it was survey-based research. It was something new that I tried and a big initiative that I took.

CN: It was such a big audience too. Must’ve been nerve-wracking. 

TC: I didn’t win any awards for it, but I think for each presentation that I do, I just try to make people laugh at least once. Why not make things fun, you know?

What do you enjoy most about working at HLI?

CN: I would say the social aspect to it: the collaborations we do with researchers here, the sense of community we have… With research, sometimes people are very secretive about their projects. But we’re very open, we have a willingness to share and collaborate, help each other with our research, and outside of the professional environment, everybody here is super fun to be around.

TC: I think there’s a lot of diversity here. Academically, we have a lot of different areas of research, like lung, heart, brain, people in the clinical or basic sciences, encompassing a lot of fields. And in our social activities, you can also see diversity in the different cultural events we have, like the Vaisakhi and Lunar New Year celebrations.

Traditionally, the heart and mind are known as being opposites, standing for emotion and reason respectively. So as a behavioral neuroscience student, what attracted to you to the BMCB and studying the heart, Tiffany? Are there overlaps between the two fields?

TC: I’m not actually a big supporter of opposites or the idea of two separate dichotomies. There’s certainly overlap because initially, I was very interested in the nervous system, but that applies to the heart, too, because the heart has its own nervous system. If you watch a heart transplant, when the heart is taken out, the heart’s still beating because it has its own circuits. The neurons are in there firing by themselves without any brain stimulation. So that’s where my interest comes from. I was also a patient here myself since my heart had an irregular rhythm, so I really wanted to contribute to this community.

Having gone to school in Hong Kong and being bilingual, Coco, do you feel that being intertwined between cultures helps us bridge the gap between things more naturally? Does that connect at all to the BMCB and HLI’s knowledge translation efforts?

CN: I think the cultural experiences that I have from Hong Kong and here in Vancouver has definitely helped in terms of interacting with different types of people. Patients are always from various cultural backgrounds since Vancouver itself is very multicultural. I was surprised at how diverse the city was when I first came here and it made it easier to acclimatize myself. It contributes to what I mentioned about collaboration: our researchers and clinical department being open makes for a smoother process for when information and samples move through the pipeline. Because we’re in constant communication with everyone, that transparency makes the knowledge translation more prominent.

What are your hobbies outside of research?

TC: I have a lot of hobbies! I really like graphic design, photography, videography, and I’ve been practicing taekwondo since I was four. I’m also a provincial referee for taekwondo events.

CN: I like going to the gym; it’s kind of an obsession, actually. I also like to read fiction; I recently started the fantasy series Throne of Glass which was released in 2012.

TC: You can always find her somewhere outside, either in the gym or hiking some mountain.

CN: I like to be outdoors! It’s all about the adrenaline-seeking stuff. Anything more dangerous is more fun! Being inside gets boring, unless I’m really tired.

TC: Yeah, that’s the thing. She can’t stay home because it’s too unproductive and peaceful. Sometimes I just sit on my couch and I hug my dog Binu and I just stare at her.

CN: What does your dog’s name mean?

TC: …It means soap in Korean.

CN: That’s so cute!

Dr. Yasir Mohamud is a postdoctoral fellow at HLI, the UBC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and a recipient of the inaugural CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Early Career Transition Award. During his doctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Honglin Luo, his research identified ways in which enteroviruses contribute to viral heart inflammation, or myocarditis.

What is your educational background?

My educational background is quite unique. I didn’t go to school until I was nine, which was when I came to Canada, when I entered Grade 4. In my home country Somalia, depending on the region you grew up in, you were lucky if you got home schooling. So once I finally started school, I fell in love with it. That experience of being hungry for knowledge, having been deprived of it in the early stages of my life, really inspired me to pursue learning. It was also something my parents always encouraged, so that motivated me more, and I became the first person in my family to complete a bachelor’s degree. I then did my master’s in Biochemistry at the University of Ottawa before coming to BC for my PhD.

How did you grapple with a new country and a new education system?

It was a bit of a shock, but in a good way. I was overwhelmed by the new knowledge and new experiences, but I also absorbed it all like a sponge. I have a big family; my parents had 10 kids, but with two brothers close to my age, having them around and experiencing everything with them for the first time was really enjoyable. Even something like discovering that there was such a thing as a TV. Watching television was an entirely new experience. I remember watching television and doing my homework at the same time, it was so interesting.

What are you currently researching at HLI?

Right now, I’m a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Honglin Luo’s lab, and I’ve been in this role for almost four years. Our lab studies how viruses can target the heart, harm the heart, and lead to heart failure. Viral heart failure is rare, unpredictable, and can have devastating outcomes—even though we all get infected by viruses routinely throughout the year. In fact, some individuals can lose their entire heart and require a heart transplant. This really motivates us to study viral heart infection to see what we can do to improve things for patients.

What is one of your proudest moments from your career so far?

That’s a really good question because it’s something that I don’t often think about. I feel like I’m very forward-driven and always thinking about the future. Maybe it’s a naïve mindset, but I think this drive inspires me to pursue new opportunities and never to settle. I know my family is very proud of me for being the first person to graduate from university and obtain my PhD. These are great milestones, but I’m not thinking about them at this stage in my life. Maybe a few years down the road, I’ll be able to look back and say “These were proud moments for me.” After all, it is something that shouldn’t be taken for granted; there are a lot of places in the world, like where I came from, where it’s very rare to have someone complete a bachelor’s education.

You’ve had a lot of volunteer experience, especially with the clinical side of things, interacting with patients of all ages. How have those experiences shaped you as a person?

This question really takes me back. Yes, I was volunteering at the Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre in Ottawa, at least a decade ago now. I was quite young, in the early stages of my undergrad, but I was trying to get volunteering experience in a setting where I would be able to interact with patients. This was important to me because I always considered medicine—becoming a doctor—as a potential career path. I think interacting with those patients let me see a different side of medicine. I learned a lot of rich stories from talking to the people there. Many of them had Alzheimer’s disease, but these people had been through so much. A lot of them were veterans, so they had experience of being in war, and memories of how life used to be 50, 60 years ago, things you only read in books. It’s really interesting to hear these things from a person that lived them, and it was here I learned the importance of listening as a skill. It has definitely served me well in my academic journey.

Your goal is to stay in academia and become a principal investigator (PI). But it seems like you’re in the minority of trainees for wanting to do so. Why do you think that is? What barriers are there to becoming an academic?

That’s another really good question. I think a lot of our trainees are undergraduate students or master’s students, so it’s possible it is just a bit early for them to be thinking about their long-term career paths. But I think it’s an excellent career choice because being a PI combines a lot of the things that we go into academia for, which is our love of knowledge, research, and a passion for science. It is a career that gives you a lot of independence, but also the ability to work within a team and get diverse perspectives to work towards a common goal. I think it is really an admirable career to be a researcher or a PI, and I think a lot of people would like to do it, but it is difficult to succeed because there are so few positions available. I heard a statistic that only around 5-10% of trainees that progress through the academic trajectory end up making it to the PI position. Maybe people feel like it’s a little unattainable?

What are your experiences with teaching?

To be honest, I love teaching and really enjoy interacting with students. I have lectured graduate level courses at HLI including PATH 521 and MEDI 570, and I like to see how my students learn by asking them questions and seeing how they respond. That dynamic interaction is something I wish that I had more of when I was going through my education. I think students learn by making mistakes; I always tell them “It’s okay if you get the answers wrong”, and I try to make it fun for them, like a game, where they get to answer questions and they get points and there’s a reward.

Are there any changes or improvements that you would like to implement in academia as you move up the ladder?

Once I become a PI, one of my goals would be to listen to trainees more. Trainees have a lot of suggestions on how to improve their programs and research environment, but they don’t really have an ear to listen to that input. Maybe they don’t have someone they feel comfortable enough to go to and say “I think this could be changed and improved.” Also, I want to know what we can do for the trainees. Maybe they have trouble with work-life balance or their research isn’t progressing as well as they would like. That’s where we can step in and ask them how we can help. Ultimately, we all want to succeed, but we need to be able to help one another to reach that goal.

You had the unique opportunity to study COVID-19 when it was only known as the novel coronavirus. How does that compare to the virology work that you usually do in Dr. Luo’s lab?

At the end of the day, scientists love to learn. My work in the Luo lab involved studying coxsackieviruses, which are cardiotropic RNA viruses, and their role in heart infection, inflammation and failure. But when COVID-19 hit, I was able to translate my coxsackievirus knowledge to studies involving SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID. I think that’s what I really enjoyed about my graduate experience, learning the skills to equip me to look at whatever new virus emerges—so that even if there’s a Virus X that comes from a different planet, I will be ready.

What is your favourite quote?

It’s a quote I always tell our students and trainees: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.” I love it; it resonates with me a lot as a researcher because it emphasizes the importance of innovation and trying new ideas to solve challenging problems. I like to tell our trainees, every failed experiment is an opportunity to learn, improve, and come back stronger!  

Researchers are often focused on their niches, like coxsackieviruses, which many people might not have heard of. How do you explain the significance of your experiments and work—studying things over and over again—to the average person?

Actually, during my graduate studies, I hadn’t heard of coxsackieviruses either, since it is quite a rare virus. For me, the answer to that question is that in science, we use specific tools and models to study larger problems. To us, a coxsackievirus is a tool, a model virus we use to study how infectious disease affects the heart, which is a big problem. As researchers, we can see these links and how our work connects to different, broader, more important disease outcomes. A lay person may just see the virus and ask “This no-name virus, why are we even studying it?” But we are asking important questions like “How does this virus cause this disease?” and “How does viral infection affect patients with COPD and other common diseases?” Of course, answering these questions takes time, and in science, we’re often in the early, early stages of the process.

Job Description:

A Research Associate (RA) position is available at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Division of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Medicine under the direction of Dr. Scott J. Tebbutt, Professor of Medicine of UBC Faculty of Medicine and Principal Investigator and Director of Education of Centre for Heart Lung Innovation at St Paul’s Hospital.

We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced Research Scientist with a strong background in cardiothoracic transplantation, biomarker discovery, and multi-omics research to join our multidisciplinary research team. The successful candidate will lead pioneering projects aimed at improving diagnostic accuracy, predicting transplant outcomes, and addressing the complexities of post-COVID-19 condition (long COVID). This role offers an exciting opportunity to work at the forefront of cardiothoracic transplantation, precision medicine, and public health research.

The RA will play a pivotal role within the project team, providing scientific expertise in cardiothoracic transplantation and COVID-19 research. They will be responsible for supporting hypothesis generation, planning, coordination, and the identification of host molecular endotypes associated with diverse COVID-19 outcomes and new viral variants in a longitudinal multi-omics cohort study of 1,000 patients with COVID-19. For the cardiothoracic transplantation research work, the RA will test newly developed blood biomarkers using patient samples from four major heart transplant centers and one lung transplant center.

Responsibilities will include, but will not be limited to:

• Lead and execute research projects focused on developing non-invasive biomarkers for diagnosing and predicting outcomes in cardiothoracic transplantation.
• Conduct multi-omics research (metabolomics, proteomics, genomics) to identify metabolic signatures and pathways associated with transplant rejection and post-transplant outcomes.
• Investigate the pathogenesis and biomarkers of long COVID, contributing to therapeutic strategies that address SARS-CoV-2 persistence, immune dysregulation, chronic inflammation, vascular injury, hypercoagulability, and multi-organ involvement.
• Collaborate with clinicians, bioinformaticians, and public health researchers to apply precision medicine approaches, including the development of real-time diagnostic tools for clinical use.
• Coordinate and develop grant applications to secure research funding.
• Prepare manuscripts and scientific reports for the dissemination of research findings. And publish high-impact research articles in peer-reviewed journals and present findings at international conferences.
• Mentor junior researchers, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students, fostering a collaborative and innovative research environment.
• Analyze experimental data and perform statistical analyses, including omics, to drive research insights.
• Stay updated on emerging COVID-19 interventions and models of care, especially in the respiratory domain.
• Conduct literature reviews and systematic reviews relevant to research goals.
• Facilitate the development of research registries, including scope and strategy formulation.
• Prepare and deliver presentations for research meetings and conferences.
• Prepare background documents for stakeholder meetings.
• Participate in stakeholder engagement meetings and coordinate research activities.
• Chair and co-chair research team meetings, ensuring alignment of research goals and activities.
• Provide additional support as required to Dr. Scott J. Tebbutt, researchers, and the broader team.

Requirements:

• MD and MSc degree with 3+ years of relevant postdoctoral experience in respiratory medicine or thoracic research
• A minimum of 5 years of clinical work experience in respiratory/thoracic medicine
• Extensive experience and knowledge of metabolomics, acute lung injury, and preclinical drug development
• Extensive research experience of COVID-19 studies and cardiothoracic transplantation studies
• Demonstrated high-quality publication record in COVID-19 research or organ transplantation: i.e., multiple first-author publications about COVID-19 in high-impact journals such as NEJM, Lancet, Lancet Respir Med, JAMA, JAMA Intern Med, BMJ etc.
• Experience in studying biomarkers for diagnosing complex diseases of the lungs
• Demonstrated a successful track record of grant (e.g., CIHR) applications (as a co-applicant or applicant)
• Demonstrated experience in managing multiple projects with conflicting timelines and priorities, and excellent time-management skills

Duration and salary:

The position will begin March 1, 2025 for a period of 1 year with the possibility of extension.

Salary is $68,932 (3% GWI) per annum.

Application:

The deadline for interested individuals is December 20, 2024. Applicants should send a cover letter and curriculum vitae to Dr. Tebbutt: scott.tebbutt@hli.ubc.ca

Equity and diversity are essential to academic excellence. An open and diverse community fosters the inclusion of voices that have been underrepresented or discouraged. We encourage applications from members of groups that have been marginalized on any grounds enumerated under the B.C. Human Rights Code, including sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, racialization, disability, political belief, religion, marital or family status, age, and/or status as a First Nation, Metis, Inuit, or Indigenous person.

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

Every summer, HLI hosts its annual Trainee Research Day, where students present the latest findings of their research in a variety of formats, including talks, posters, and this year’s newest category: The Knowledge Translation Video Competition. The HLI Trainee Association is always engineering creative ways to share our research, and last year, it was the Rapid Fire Presentations that caught everyone’s attention.

Drs. Graeme Koelwyn and Rachel Eddy first took the stage and spoke about their experiences as young principal investigators (PIs), balancing life between academics, research, and where the lines blur.

“When you’re new, there’s a lot you can’t prepare for, and you’ll need to be in uncomfortable positions,” Dr. Koelwyn said, recalling his own experience of feeling like he had to ‘fake it till he made it’.

“But you just need to trust yourself to be able—spread your wings, and create your own trajectory.”

Dr. Eddy echoed his sentiment, noting that even for her, impostor syndrome never goes away.

“Talk to your peers; there are many people in the same boat as you,” she advised. “Don’t isolate yourself, because we’re all in this together.”

Dr. Simon Rousseau, Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at McGill University and keynote speaker for the Peter Paré Lecture, noted an excitement in the air as HLI trainees shared their research.

“Trainees are the foundation of academic research and I am continuously amazed and delighted to see the breath of work carried out,” he said. “The knowledge translation segment was quite astonishing; plenty of talent in spreading the outcomes of research to lay audiences.”

Before long, it was time for the first round of poster presentations. The poster room, lined with rows of poster boards and eager presenters, was reminiscent of a bazaar, with trainees beckoning visitors and judges alike to view their research. The enthusiasm was off the charts, and an extension for the session was required, with there being an overflow of guests in line.

As everyone hurried back into the lecture hall, the oral presentations began. A total of 12 presentations were given by our trainees, focused on topics concerning the heart, lungs, and critical care.

After lunch, graduate student Sunaina Chopra held a fireside chat with Bruce McManus Lecturer Dr. Simon Pimstone, who is Clinical Assistant Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Associate Member in the Division of Cardiology at UBC. In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Pimstone was a founder, Director, and Chief Executive Officer of Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Well-versed in the different sectors and paths available to trainees after graduation, Dr. Pimstone stressed that he finds it crucial for young people to avoid changing directions too often. “Just focus on one path,” he said. “Once you find success from it, it becomes a lot easier to switch after.”

The second poster session was just as packed as the first, and at the end of the day, 34 posters in total were presented and reviewed. The audience also voted on the submissions to the latest addition to Research Day festivities: The Knowledge Translation Video Competition. The competition challenged trainees to create two-minute videos to explain their research to a lay audience, and 5 videos were produced in total, which you can watch on our YouTube channel.

HLI Director Dr. Don Sin then concluded Research Day with a presentation of his own on the landscape of scientific publications, but it was the students’ research that impressed him the most.

“I was blown away by the quality of their presentation and their studies; the poise and maturity of the presentation and students’ ability to think on their feet and field questions. The keynote speeches were also terrific and practical, demonstrating the diverse career trajectories of biomedical scientists. This was the best ever HLI Research Day and I can’t wait for next year’s.”

Of course, no Research Day is complete without the award ceremony. Here is our full list of winners:

Poster Presentations:

First Place: Rachael Smith – Proteins Co-segregating with Pathological TDP-43 Proteoforms

Second Place: Fatemeh Aminazadeh – The Impact of Mucus Plugs on Small Airways Remodeling in COPD patients

Second Place: Sean He & Edward Li – The Effects of Extracorporeal Radiofrequency Application on Lung Emphysema in a Unilateral Pig Model of COPD

Third Place: Kauna Usman – Interleukin-1α Downregulates Transforming Growth Factor-β-induced Global Gene Transcriptome Changes in Healthy Lung Fibroblasts; Implication in Lung Injury and Repair

Third Place: Bob Lin – Investigating the Phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate Pathway of Coxsackievirus B3-Induced Non-Canonical Autophagy

Third Place: Estefanía Espín – Long-COVID in Paramedics: An Exploratory Gene Expression Analysis

Rookie of the Year: Wendy Liang – The Effect of Senescence and Senolytics on Airway Epithelial Function

Oral Presentations:

First Place: Cyril Helbling – Navigating Challenges in the Development of Seed Amplification Assay for Synucleinopathies

Second Place: Hacina Gill – Frame Fibrosis of Transcatheter Heart Valves: A Potential Substrate for Impaired Neo-Sinus Flow and Coronary Access

Third Place: Rohan Arvind – Incidence of Neuropsychiatric Outcomes Following Sepsis: A Propensity Score Matched Retrospective Cohort Study in UK Biobank Patients

Rookie of the Year: Carly Lin – Understanding the Role of Coxsackievirus B3 Membrane-Associated Viral Proteins in Mitochondrial Dysfunction

Knowledge Translation Video Competition:

People’s Choice Award: Arla Xiao – IPF Vandalizes Bus Station Lungs

Kevin Seo is the recipient for this year’s Peter Paré Studentship, an eight-week summer internship at HLI (valued at $4,690) for students who participate in High School Student Science Week. Kevin is working in Dr. Del Dorscheid’s lab until the end of August as he prepares to start his life as a student in UBC’s Faculty of Science.

What is your research project?

I’m researching senescence, which is a state of cell-cycle arrest in response to damage, in the airways of patients with COPD and asthma. The primary goal of my project is to find out if the state of senescence is elevated with respiratory disease. I’m also learning the basics of lab protocols, such as Western blotting, ELISA (Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), and immunohistochemistry.

What is a typical day like for you at HLI?

I write down the protocol for whatever experiment I’ll be conducting on the day, which could utilize any of the three techniques I mentioned. I then prepare samples, antibodies, and run the experiment before I discuss my results with my mentors and supervisor.

What interested you about the High School Science Week?

It was a great opportunity to experience what it’d be like to work in a professional laboratory setting. Opportunities like these are rare, even for eager students, and I knew it would give me a better understanding of the current state of medicine first-hand.

What skills have you developed at HLI?

The biggest skill I’ve learned is the ability to adapt to mistakes and accepting them when they occur. It’s very easy to make mistakes in the lab; maybe you’ve added too many doses of something, loaded the wrong plate, didn’t freeze something properly and now the cells died… It’s about focusing on how you can recover. Even if something ends up being the opposite of my hypothesis, I’ve grown to not be discouraged and to use the data to find new meaning.

What do you enjoy most about working at HLI?

What I enjoy most is knowing that it’ll be challenging every day. I’m always learning something new, and I’m building knowledge to prepare for my future. There’s never a boring day here.

Do you have any advice for high school students pursuing a career in STEM?

Be prepared to start from scratch and expect failure. That sounds scary, but the lab challenges you in a different way. Overconfidence will trip you up, so you need to go into things with humility and expect to be humbled. I wouldn’t say I was overconfident at all, but I was still humbled, so that goes to show it’s a whole new challenge. Being organized and writing everything down will go a long way.

Is it a matter of the lab setting being more difficult to navigate?

I wouldn’t say it’s considerably harder, but very different. I think most people who want to go into STEM already have a strong understanding of the subject and their future responsibilities. It’s just a different style of learning than studying from textbooks and lectures, so being ready for that is important.

What do you like to do outside of research and school?

I love net sports, especially badminton and volleyball. I was also on my school’s gymnastics team, and would like to continue pursuing it in my free time when I’m in university.

Is there anything from your time on the gymnastics team that you believe applies to research?

My coach always told us “anything you don’t practice, you’ll lose”, but I didn’t believe him. I used to be able to do my vault in practice every time, no sweat, so I prioritized other moves. Thanks to that, I lost first place in the provincial championships because I messed up my vault. It’s the same in research, if you don’t plan your protocols properly, you’ll have to restart. Being meticulous is key.

What is your favourite movie?

Inside Out 2 was more emotional than I thought! I watched the first and second movies back-to-back, but I related to the main character more for the second. I think the exploration of anxiety was well done, and because she’s got a bit older, it was easier for me to relate to how I was when I was 13, 14.
I recommend checking it out if you haven’t done so already.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research has announced the Government of Canada and partners are investing $19.3 million to support nine research teams to study ongoing, new, and emerging threats to lung health.

At HLI, PIs Dr. Chris Carlsten and Pat Camp will lead a team focusing on the long-term health effects of wildfire smoke and how exposure to wildfire smoke affects people differently based on age, sex, genetics, exercise habits, and socioeconomic status. Their findings will guide public health advice during wildfire emergencies to help keep people safe.

Project Title: Lungs on Fire: Wildfire Smoke, Incident Diseases, Susceptible Populations, and Community Values in Canada – $1,999,990

“We are thrilled to have support for our work on understanding the long-term effects of wildfire smoke. Unfortunately, these particulate-rich exposures are anticipated to increase and we need knowledge about how our communities will be affected in order to best target interventions to protect them.”
– Dr. Chris Carlsten

PIs Dr. Janice Leung and Dr. Don Sin will lead a team featuring Drs. Jordan Guenette, Jonathon Leipsic, Rachel Eddy, and Ana Hernandez Cordero, researching the impact of vaping in the lungs of Canadian adolescents and adults using breathing, imaging, exercise, and airway sampling techniques. This study will represent one of the most detailed evaluations of e-cigarette users in the world, helping everyone make informed decisions about vaping.

Project Title: The Canadian Lung Outcomes in Users of Vaping Devices (CLOUD) Study – $1,999,635

“Many Canadians are asking questions about what vaping does to their lungs. We are honoured to have the opportunity to help answer these questions so that they can keep their lungs healthy!”
– Dr. Janice Leung

Recruitment for Dr. Leung’s CLOUD study will open in the fall. If interested, please email respiratory.research@hli.ubc.ca or call 604-806-9465. Her ongoing studies include CANUCK, TORCH, and AGE-HIV, all of which continue to search for participants.

Dr. Sin is also co-PI on two other lung health team grants:
Immune dysanapsis: Updating the paradigm of inflammation and lung health trajectories in diverse populations to achieve lifelong health for all

Canadian consortium for understanding the role of airway mucus occlusions in cough, COPD and asthma (CANMuc)

Dr. Camp is also a co-investigator on another lung health team grant:
Harnessing Data to Improve Lung Health in Canada: Data4LungHealth

Read the Government of Canada’s press release here: https://www.canada.ca/en/institutes-health-research/news/2024/07/nine-research-teams-to-tackle-new-and-existing-threats-to-lung-health.html

Should e-cigarettes be banned? Regulated? Or even recommended by clinicians? While respirologists can inform us of the potential benefits or detriments to using e-cigarettes over regular tobacco, there is no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to setting the policies around their usage. Drs. Harvard, Winsberg, Duan, and Carlsten argue that current discussion of e-cigarettes and related policies reflects hidden disagreements over three ethical questions:

1) Decision Procedures – What procedure should be followed to make the decision?

2) Relevant Duties or Outcomes – What public health duties or outcomes are relevant to the decision, and what is their relative importance?

3) Standards of Evidence – What evidence is appropriate to include in the decision-making process?

Disagreements in policy debates often arise from ethical differences rather than empirical questions. By addressing ethical questions directly, respirologists can help better inform public deliberations around e-cigarettes.

Read the full paper published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society: https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/10.1513/AnnalsATS.202402-186IP

The annual American Thoracic Society (ATS) International Conference made its return in May, where 14,000 physicians and scientists across disciplines gathered to discuss their experiences, challenges, and research in understanding pulmonary disease, critical illness, and sleep disorders. This year, the ATS International Conference was held in sunny San Diego from May 17-22, with over 20 HLI members in attendance helping to bring home the following awards:

Dr. James Hogg was awarded the Solbert Permutt Trailblazer Award in Pulmonary Physiology and Medicine, given to an established investigator who has performed pioneering research in the area of respiratory structure and function and has guided and inspired others in the field.

Dr. Chris Ryerson was awarded the Assembly on Clinical Problems Annual Mentoring Award, given in recognition of outstanding contributions to mentoring, training, and guidance of junior pulmonary/critical care medicine individuals and/or colleagues in research, or clinical care.

Fatemeh Aminazadeh and Clarus Leung won Assembly on Respiratory Structure and Function Abstract Scholarships, awarded to trainees based on the quality of abstracts submitted as reviewed by the Assembly Program Committees.

Firoozeh Gerayeli finished as Second Runner Up in the Canadian Thoracic Society Research Poster Competition for the James C. Hogg Basic Research Award, which recognizes excellence in respiratory research and showcases the contributions of up and coming Canadian researchers.

Gillian Goobie, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Tillie Hackett’s lab, is no stranger to the ATS International Conference, having attended it 9 years running.

“ATS has always presented a fantastic opportunity for learning and connecting with colleagues and friends from all around the world,” she says.

An attending Respirologist and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Division of Respiratory Medicine at UBC, she finds value in spending time with people from both the interstitial lung disease and environmental health spheres, citing the conference as the perfect place to make new connections, establish collaborations, and catch up with friends.

“It’s also one of the best venues to showcase your research to a wide audience.”

When asked if she would recommend the conference to new trainees, Gillian’s answer was a definitive YES: “I would also strongly advise getting involved in different opportunities provided by ATS including Early Career groups, participating in Assembly Meetings, and applying for apprenticeship positions within your Assembly.”

On the other hand, it was Fatemeh Aminazadeh’s first time attending the conference. A PhD student also in Dr. Hackett’s lab, her research explores the mechanisms that contribute to women’s susceptibility to developing severe early-onset COPD, highlighting systemic changes needed to address the biases against women that exist even prior to diagnosis.

“Presenting my research at ATS through poster discussions gave me helpful feedback on my research and new ideas for improving my project,” she says.

Like Gillian, she finds human connection to be one of the most valuable aspects of the ATS International Conference.

“It helped me connect with professionals in both industry and academia, which has been crucial for my career growth. Attending ATS was an extremely valuable experience that I highly recommend to future trainees.”

And of course, the trip helped everyone who attended create memories that will last a lifetime (or until next year’s iteration in San Francisco!)