Grant: CIHR New Investigator

My group studies the cells lining the breathing tubes in our lungs called airway epithelial cells. These cells are the first line of defence in the lung against inhaled allergens, pollution, and viruses. All of these inhaled substances are important in development of lung disease and attacks. Understanding how the airway epithelial cells respond to inhaled substances may provide new treatment options. My group proposes to study how common inhaled substances interact with airway epithelial cells to start an immune response, and how this immune response may lead to asthma attacks or development of disease. The program will generate new ideas on how to treat asthma and provide evidence for public policy aimed at protecting vulnerable people in the public and may uncover new treatment strategies. I will use three distinct approaches for my research. 1) I will expose humans that are non-asthmatic or asthmatic to air pollution, allergen, or a combination of both, and measure immune responses in the lungs. This experiment will determine how inhalation of common substances triggers specific types of immune responses. 2) I will perform experiments to determine immune responses to air pollution, allergens, and viruses from living airway epithelial cells removed from non-asthmatic and asthmatic volunteers. These experiments will determine how immune responses from airway epithelial cells are triggered and if there are differences between non-asthmatics and asthmatics. 3) As a model for human asthma, I will expose mice to a unique air pollution and allergen combination that leads to asthma symptoms in mice. Using this model, we will explore how the airway epithelial cells in mouse lungs influence the development of asthma.