Dr. Tillie Hackett
ProfessorAbout
Dr. Tillie-Louise Hackett, PhD, ATSF, is a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Asthma and COPD Lung Pathobiology & Therapeutics, and Professor and Vice-Chair of Research in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics at the University of British Columbia.
Dr. Hackett is an internationally recognized leader in ultra-resolution biomedical imaging modalities and human in vitro models to investigate and treat the pathobiology of asthma and COPD, which daily affects the ability of over 4.5 million Canadians to breathe.
Dr. Hackett’s research has been formally recognized by over 35 awards, including the Parker B. Francis Fellowship (2012), Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator Award (2014), and the UBC Faculty of Medicine Distinguished Researcher Award (2018). In 2018, she was named an Inaugural American Thoracic Society Fellow (100 awarded), a mark of distinction and recognition for accomplishments and dedication to the society and field of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. Dr. Hackett has published over 120 peer-reviewed articles and ranks in the top 0.2% of 157,339 published authors worldwide on obstructive lung diseases (Expertscape.com).
Since 2014, Dr. Hackett has served as the Director of the HLI James C. Hogg Lung Tissue Biobank. Established in 1977, it is one of the largest biobanks in the world, enabling researchers from academia, health authorities, and industry to access comprehensively phenotyped lung samples from over 3,000 patients. Between 2013 – 2018, Dr. Hackett served as the Associate Director of the Centre for Heart Lung Innovation. Since 2021, Dr Hackett has served as the Director of the UBC CyTOF Core for single cell imaging and suspension proteomics (cytof.ubc.ca).
Dr. Hackett has served as the primary supervisor for a broad range of trainees, including six MSc and ten PhD students, eight postdoctoral fellows, six co-op students, 17 summer students, three clinical fellows, and five BSc Honours students. Her trainees have collectively won over 150 awards, including fellowships, travel awards, and best presentation awards.
Education & Training
- BSc, Biochemistry and Pharmacology, University of Southampton (2002)
- PhD, Cellular and Biological Sciences, University of Southampton (2006)
Area of Interest
The goal of Dr. Hackett’s research program is to improve the health of patients living with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) who are challenged every day with the simple task of breathing. Her research approach uses ultra-resolution imaging to detect early disease, which is undetectable using current clinical tests, and to investigate the underlying cellular, molecular, and genetic abnormalities responsible for early disease pathobiology. The objectives of my research are to use this knowledge to provide new approaches to predict risk, diagnose, and discover new treatments to improve the quality of life of patients with asthma, COPD and IPF.
Team Members
- Gillian Goobie – Postdoctoral Fellow
- Kauna Usman – PhD Student
- Kingsley Nwozor – PhD Student
- Aileen Hsieh – PhD Student
- Fatemeh Aminazadeh – PhD Student
- Najmeh Assadinia – PhD Student
- Samin Abbasidezfouli – PhD Student
- Omid Assadinia – MSc Student
- Raveen Badyal – MSc Student
- Brandon Kohlen – MSc Student
- Kasra Hajzargarbashi – NSERC Graduate Student
- May Fouadi – Lab Manager
- Yolanda Yang – Statistician
- Darren Sutherland – Lung Registry Manager
- Stacey Ledoux – Imaging Core Manager
- Fanny Chu – Lab Technician
- Dragos Vasilescu – Research Associate