Raam Sivakumar, a PhD candidate at the Centre for Heart Lung Innovation (HLI), presented his work at the September 21, 2026 session of HLI’s Monday Research in Progress Seminar Series. Working with Drs. Amrit Singh and Zachary Laksman, Raam discussed how combining information from different heart tests could help predict which patients may develop an irregular heartbeat.

His research focuses on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a heart condition, often inherited, that causes the heart muscle to become unusually thick. People with HCM are at risk of developing atrial fibrillation (AF), an irregular heart rhythm. Predicting who will develop AF remains difficult, and existing tools for estimating risk rely on only a few basic heart measurements.

Raam’s approach brings together four sources of information: heart MRI scans, ultrasound images of the heart, recordings from a portable heart monitor known as a Holter monitor, and genetic test results. A Holter monitor records the heart’s rhythm over time. Each test offers different clues that could help researchers understand a person’s future risk.

A key part of the project uses deep learning, a form of artificial intelligence that learns patterns in data. Raam uses this approach to find subtle patterns in MRI scans that standard measurements may miss. These imaging clues are then combined with information from the other tests to predict which patients are more likely to develop AF.

In the research Raam presented, combining all four types of information predicted AF better than using any single type of test alone. This finding suggests that information from different tests can complement one another when estimating future risk.

The patterns the model identified corresponded to measurements already known to be associated with AF and HCM. These connections suggest that the model is picking up genuine structural features of the condition rather than noise.

Raam’s work points to the potential of combining different types of health information to improve risk assessment for people with HCM. By helping identify patients at higher risk earlier, this approach could support care teams as they make decisions about monitoring and care.

On September 14, 2026, the Centre for Heart Lung Innovation (HLI) welcomed Parsa Moheban for its weekly Monday Research in Progress Seminar Series. A PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at UBC, Parsa works with Drs. Amrit Singh and Zachary Laksman. His talk explored whether routine heart tests could help identify patients who are more likely to develop an irregular heartbeat.

His research focuses on people with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a condition in which the heart muscle becomes unusually thick. People with HCM face a higher risk of atrial fibrillation (AF), an irregular heart rhythm that can increase the risk of stroke and worsen heart failure.

Parsa is investigating whether clues in information already collected during a patient’s care can help estimate their risk before AF develops. The goal is to give care teams a clearer picture of who may need closer monitoring.

To do this, the project aims to bring together heart MRI scans, ultrasound images of the heart, electrocardiograms (ECGs) that record its electrical activity, and clinical health records. Each source offers a different view of heart health. Combining them may help researchers build a more complete picture of an individual’s future risk.

Understanding why a prediction is made is central to the project. Parsa wants the estimates to be linked to recognizable measurements of the heart’s structure, function and electrical activity, alongside clinical information. This would help care teams understand which findings contribute to a person’s estimated risk.

So far, Parsa has developed an automated process for extracting useful measurements from heart MRI scans and has tested it using publicly available datasets. This work lays the groundwork for combining information from several types of tests. Testing the full approach in people with HCM is still ahead.

The next steps include extending the work to heart ultrasound images and ECGs, then testing the combined approach using data from people with HCM. If successful, the research could help clinicians identify patients at higher risk earlier and make more informed decisions about monitoring.

Learn more about Parsa’s research or connect with him on LinkedIn.

This summer the HLI was proud to again host students enrolled in the STEMPREP Project, a multi-year competitive-entry program. Seven high school students and one college student joined HLI in June. The STEMPREP Project is run by the Distance Learning Center, a non-profit corporation whose mission is to increase the number of economically and racially-disadvantaged child prodigies in science, technology, engineering, math and medicine (STEM). The students, who came to Vancouver from across the United States, undertook 8-week-long lab-based internships in eight different HLI labs.

The Distance Learning Center’s director Dr. Moses Williams initiated the STEMPREP Project back in 1990 in Philadelphia. Dr. Williams’s vision, back then and now, has been to power the production of 21^st century STEM doctoral degree holders from four historically underrepresented minority (URM) populations: African Americans, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans and Native Hawaiians. When the program started, there were just short-term programs being developed in the US to expose and attract students to STEM. These programs had poor retention, and failed to advance young students towards a doctoral or medical degree.

HLI has been hosting STEMPREP students since the early 2000’s under Dr Peter Paré’s leadership. Initially, the program sent only a handful of students to a select number of labs at HLI. Building upon the initial success, the number expanded to 18 summer students in 2014 and 13 students in 2015. Here, the students actively engaged in translational science projects and produced high-quality data. Most of these students are now physicians or physician-scientists in the US. With funding restrictions in the US, the program stopped sending students from 2018. HLI-STEMPREP relationship re-engaged in 2026 under new leadership and a new model of funding.

Fast forward to 2022: the second external study of the college graduating classes, commissioned by the United Health Foundation, found the STEMPREP Project to be one of the most successful training initiatives in U.S. history. Of the more than 90% of students who completed the program, 82% of college seniors matriculated into post-baccalaureate educational programs in STEM. The 10-year continuum of multi-institutional internships for URM students is unique and introduces the students to new professional networks and valuable career-building experiences.

Summer 2026 at the HLI

The STEMPREP students wrapped up their summer at HLI by giving oral presentations at a half-day symposium in the James Hogg Conference Centre. HLI Director Dr. Sin kicked off the morning by discussing the importance and the complexity of clinical research. He highlighted the many dimensions that enable basic science research to be translated into better patient care, not the least of which are bright young scientists and doctors. STEMPREP Director Dr. Williams thanked the room of investigators, trainees and staff for mentoring and welcoming the students into their labs for the summer. He remarked that international experience has been important for the program, and that STEMPREP graduates have gone on to work in cities like London and Tokyo.

Each of the students joined labs working on research that was new to them. In their presentations, they explained what they learned about their research topic, how they conducted their experiments, and what their experimental results taught them. The students presented with confidence and energy, and it was clear from the audience how meaningful their experiences at HLI had been for them. The students were grateful for the mentorship, training, and very warm welcome they received. One of the students mentioned that they look forward to coming back to Vancouver next summer. Outside of HLI, the students said their favourite activities were exploring the UBC main campus, biking around Stanley Park, and enjoying the rides at Playland.

The Centre for Heart Lung Innovation (HLI) is proud to celebrate Dr. Andrew Krahn, who has received a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant through the Spring 2026 competition.

Dr. Krahn’s funded project, Precision Diagnosis and Management of Cardiogenetics: The Hearts in Rhythm Organization (HiRO), will advance a national approach to diagnosing and managing inherited heart conditions.

The CIHR Spring 2026 Project Grant competition approved 439 research grants, representing a total investment of approximately $412 million in health research across Canada.

Improving Diagnosis and Care for Inherited Heart Conditions

Inherited heart conditions include disorders affecting the heart’s electrical system and muscle. Although individually rare, these conditions can have serious consequences, including dangerous heart rhythms, fainting, cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death.

Diagnosing these conditions can be challenging. Symptoms and risks may vary considerably—even among members of the same family—and some people may show few warning signs before experiencing a life-threatening event. More precise ways of combining clinical findings, genetic information and long-term patient data are therefore essential.

Dr. Krahn is an internationally recognized expert in cardiac arrhythmias whose research spans the genetic causes of heart rhythm disorders, sudden cardiac arrest, syncope and the evaluation of new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. His work has helped establish national collaborations focused on rare, inherited heart conditions.

At the centre of this work is the Hearts in Rhythm Organization (HiRO), a Canadian network connecting researchers, health care providers, patients and families. HiRO is dedicated to improving awareness and understanding of inherited heart conditions, supporting collaborative research, standardizing care and preventing sudden cardiac death.

Through this new project, Dr. Krahn and the HiRO team will strengthen a precision approach to cardiogenetics—using each patient’s clinical and genetic information to support more accurate diagnoses, individualized risk assessment and better-informed care.

Building on HiRO’s established national research platform, the work will:

• Strengthen collaboration among cardiogenetics researchers and clinical teams across Canada.
• Improve understanding of how inherited heart conditions develop and affect patients and families.
• Integrate genetic findings with clinical information to support more precise diagnosis and risk assessment.
• Advance consistent, evidence-informed approaches to monitoring and managing inherited heart conditions.
• Engage patients and families and translate research findings into practical information for health care providers and the wider community.

The long-term goal is to help patients and families receive clearer answers, more personalized care and appropriate follow-up—while reducing the risk of preventable cardiac events and sudden death.

Making Research Matter for Patients and Families

Inherited heart conditions do not affect patients in isolation. A diagnosis can have important implications for parents, siblings, children and other relatives who may also benefit from assessment or ongoing care.

For this reason, patient and family engagement is a central part of HiRO’s work. The network brings together people with lived experience, clinicians and researchers to ensure that new knowledge is shared effectively and responds to the needs of those most directly affected.

By combining national collaboration with clinical and genetic research, this CIHR-supported project will help move cardiogenetics toward care that is more precise, consistent and responsive to patients and families.

Congratulations to Dr. Andrew Krahn and the entire HiRO team on this important achievement and their continued leadership in improving heart health across Canada.

On March 23, 2026, HLI hosted another insightful session as part of its Seminar Series, featuring Milad Vahedi, a PhD trainee working under Dr. Graeme Koelwyn. Milad’s talk, titled Chronic Exercise as a Modulator of Immune Responses in Aging: An Evolutionary Perspective, delved into the fascinating relationship between physical activity, our immune system, and the aging process.

Milad began by taking us on a journey back to our ancestors, who relied heavily on endurance activities like walking and running to hunt and survive. Their bodies adapted to these long-distance activities, improving their oxygen delivery to muscles. But the benefits didn’t stop there. These adaptations also fine-tuned their immune systems, helping them stay healthy by reducing inflammation and strengthening their defenses against disease.

Fast forward to today, and the situation has changed dramatically. With modern, sedentary lifestyles, many of us no longer engage in the kind of physical activity that our ancestors did. This lack of movement leads to chronic low-level inflammation, which can speed up aging and increase the risk of diseases associated with aging. Milad highlighted how this mismatch between our evolutionary biology and modern habits is a major driver of aging-related health issues.

However, the good news is that regular, chronic exercise can help counteract this process. Milad’s research suggests that staying active can regulate immune responses in a way that prevents or even treats aging-related diseases. In fact, exercise doesn’t just help with muscle health—it can play a crucial role in maintaining a healthy immune system throughout life.

Milad’s presentation was a powerful reminder of the importance of physical activity, not just for fitness, but for its broader impact on overall health and aging. His work is a step forward in understanding how we can harness exercise to help keep our immune systems strong and reduce the risk of chronic diseases as we age.

To learn more about Milad’s incredible work, feel free to check out his LinkedIn profile here: Milad Vahedi LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/milad-vahedi-72065839a/

This seminar provided an inspiring look at the long-term benefits of staying active, and Milad’s research is helping shed light on how simple lifestyle changes can have a profound impact on our health as we age.

On February 23rd, HLI hosted another engaging session as part of its Seminar Series, featuring Samuel Leung, a PhD student in Bioinformatics from the Computational Biology and part of Wang’s Lab at HLI. Samuel’s talk, titled Benchmarking and Developing Tools for Cardiovascular Drug Repurposing, explored an innovative approach to tackling the global heart disease crisis.

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, yet developing new treatments is often slow and costly. Samuel’s talk shed light on a promising solution: repurposing existing drugs. This approach focuses on finding new uses for drugs that have already been approved and proven to be safe, significantly reducing the time and costs involved in clinical trials.

Traditional methods of drug repurposing can be hit-or-miss, often relying on chance observations of how a drug affects conditions it wasn’t originally designed to treat. These methods don’t offer much insight into how or why a drug works in a different context, making it difficult to predict if it will help with a new disease. Samuel’s research aims to improve these methods by using computational tools that better identify promising treatments for heart disease.

By evaluating and refining these tools, Samuel is helping pave the way for faster and more cost-effective development of new cardiovascular therapies. This research is an exciting step toward making heart disease treatments more accessible and efficient, ultimately saving lives on a global scale.

This session provided a fascinating look at how modern technology is being used to improve healthcare, and Samuel’s work is a crucial contribution to the field of cardiovascular treatment.

If you want to connect with Samuel and learn more about his work, feel free to visit his LinkedIn profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sleung124/

HLI is proud to celebrate the success of Dr. Janice Leung and Dr. Scott Tebbutt, who along with their co-applicants and research teams, have received over $1.8 million in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Fall 2025 Project Grant competition. This funding will support important new research aimed at improving care for people living with lung disease, heart transplants, and health inequities across Canada.

 Understanding COPD Beyond Smoking

Dr. Janice Leung will lead the MAPLE-SEED Study, a project focused on understanding why some people develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) even though they have never smoked. COPD is a long-term lung disease that affects breathing and impacts more than 2.6 million Canadians.

While smoking is a major cause of COPD, it does not explain all cases. About one in five people with COPD have never smoked, suggesting other factors play an important role. Dr. Leung’s research looks at how life experiences and living conditions such as childhood hardship, income level, education, air pollution, diet, and neighbourhood environment can affect lung health over time.

The study focuses on changes in the body that occur at the molecular level, specifically through a process called DNA methylation. In simple terms, DNA methylation acts like a biological record of the experiences a person has had throughout their life. These changes can also reflect how quickly the body is aging, sometimes referred to as a “biological clock.”

Dr. Leung’s team hypothesizes that long-term exposure to social and environmental challenges speeds up biological aging and increases the risk of COPD and poor breathing outcomes.

Using information from two large Canadian studies that follow people over many years, the research will:

• Explore how life circumstances and resulting changes in DNA methylation affect lung health 
• Identify risk factors for  biological aging and COPD – and potentially ways to improve prevention and treatment

In the long term, the applicants hope that this work leads to the development of a simple blood test to help identify people at higher risk of worsening lung disease.

This research brings together experts from many fields, including lung medicine, public health, biology, and data science. The goal is to help prevent COPD, improve early detection, and reduce health disparities.

Improving Early Detection of Complications After Heart Transplantation

Dr. Scott Tebbutt’s research project focuses on improving care for people who have received a heart transplant. Over time, many transplant recipients develop a condition called cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV), which causes the blood vessels of the transplanted heart to narrow. CAV is the leading cause of late transplant failure.

Currently, CAV is usually detected through invasive heart tests, often only after symptoms appear. Dr. Tebbutt’s team aims to develop a simple blood test that can detect signs of CAV much earlier, before serious damage occurs.

The research will look for small changes in the blood such as proteins and molecules that signal early injury or inflammation in the heart. By studying blood samples collected at different times after transplantation, the team hopes to identify patterns that clearly separate healthy recovery from early disease.

This research project will:

• Identify early warning signs of CAV using blood samples
• Track how these signals change over time in transplant patients
• Test how accurately these blood markers can predict disease
• Combine multiple blood signals into a reliable early-detection tool

Led by Dr. Tebbutt and Co-Applicant and HLI Research Associate Dr. Chengliang Yang, the long-term goal of this research is to improve monitoring, reduce invasive testing, and help patients receive treatment sooner.

Making Research Matter for Patients

Together, these CIHR-funded projects reflect HLI’s commitment to research that puts patients first. By studying how social conditions affect lung disease and by developing earlier, less invasive tests for heart transplant complications, these projects aim to improve quality of life, reduce health disparities, and support better outcomes for patients across Canada.

Congratulations to Dr. Leung, Dr. Tebbutt, and their research teams and co-applicants on being awarded these project grants.

On January 19, 2026, Zeren Sun, a PhD candidate working with Dr. Pascal Bernatchez, gave a talk as part of the ongoing Seminar Series at the Centre for Heart Lung Innovation (HLI). The presentation, titled “The Interplay Between Circulating Lipoproteins and Intramuscular Lipids in the Pathogenesis of Dysferlin-related Muscular Dystrophy,” explored the role cholesterol plays in muscular dystrophy (MD), a condition that causes progressive muscle weakness.

Zeren’s research focused on how imbalances in cholesterol levels, both in the blood and within muscle cells, could contribute to the worsening of MD. Healthy muscles depend on a proper cholesterol balance, something patients on cholesterol-lowering medications called statins know all too well, as they often cause statin-associated myopathies, such as muscle pain. But in people with MD, this balance is also disrupted, but differently. Zeren shared how disruptions in cholesterol can interfere with how muscles process fats, leading to muscle damage and reducing the ability of muscles to repair themselves, especially in the absence of a protein called dysferlin.

Using patient data, mouse models, and lab-grown muscle cells, the Bernatchez lab found that it is the presence of harmful “bad” cholesterol particles, the severity of MD is worsened. Their research also suggests that dysferlin might help control how cholesterol moves within muscle cells, which could lead to potential new treatment options. Additionally, certain dietary fats may help improve cholesterol balance in the muscles, offering a possible approach to managing MD. Zeren’s work emphasizes the importance of understanding how cholesterol affects muscle health and suggests that targeting cholesterol pathways might help improve treatment strategies for MD.

If you want to connect with Zeren and learn more about his work, feel free to visit his ResearchGate profile here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zeren-Sun