Using data from multiple large cohorts, researchers found that people exposed to challenges early in life, such as maternal smoking, preterm birth, low birthweight, or socioeconomic hardship, were more likely to have a larger height-GaP deficit as adults. This gap consistently reflected cumulative early-life stress across diverse populations.

Importantly, a larger height-GaP deficit was strongly associated with a higher risk of death in adulthood, including deaths from cardiovascular disease. These links held even after accounting for genetics and adult health factors, showing that it’s not height itself, but falling short of genetic growth potential, that matters.

Height-GaP offers a practical new tool to study early-life adversity, identify long-term health risks, and guide prevention strategies, highlighting how experiences early in life can quietly shape health outcomes years later.

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Quantifying the impact of early life growth adversity on later life health. Goldman-Pham R, Alter MP, Bao R, Collins SÉ, Debban CL, Allinson JP, Ambler A, Bertoni AG, Caspi A, Lovinsky-Desir S, Ekstrom MP, Engert JC, Jacobs DR Jr, Malinsky D, Manichaikul A, Michos ED, Moffitt TE, Oelsner EC, Ramrakha S, Rich SS, Sack C, Stanojevic S, Subbarao P, Sugden K, Theodore R, Watson KE, Williams B, Yang B, Dupuis J, Shaheen SO, Barr RG, Hancox RJ, Smith BM. Commun Med (Lond). 2025 Nov 17;5(1):534.

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Dr. Smith is a respiratory physician-scientist at the MUHC Research Institute, where he directs the Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation. Trained at McGill and Columbia, his research focuses on the heterogeneity of chronic lung disease across the life course. A selection committee of leaders from across sites endorsed him as a visionary, principled, and collaborative leader.

As Division Director, Dr. Smith will lead the development of a strategic plan to expand McGill’s capacity in clinical epidemiology, advancing research, training, and innovative methods such as clinical trials, digital health, AI, and life course epidemiology. The Division is poised to serve as a hub for applied clinical research and training, strengthening McGill’s mission to be Canada’s most research-intensive Department of Medicine.

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Dr. Benjamin Smith Appointed McGill Division Director of Clinical Epidemiology. McGill e-News. September 11, 2025.

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In total, nine research teams across Canada were funded to tackle new and existing threats to lung health.

Team Grant: Lung Health – Data Science, Policy and Lung Health

Title: Harnessing Data to Improve Lung Health in Canada: Data4LungHealth
Principal Investigators: Simon Rousseau, Sanja Stanojevic, Emily P. Brigham
Co-Investigators: Céline Bergeron, Cole Bowerman, Shawn D Aaron, Guillaume Bourque, Jeffrey R Brook, Pat Camp, Dany Doiron, Isabel Fortier, Andrea S Gershon, Carolyn McCoy, Mohsen Sadatsafavi, Benjamin M. Smith, Michael K Stickland, Katherine L Vandemheen, Ma’n Hilmi M Zawati.

The project will develop a new system, called ‘shAIRe’ and the website ‘Data4LungHealth’, to improve the safety and accessibility of data for lung health research. This initiative will ensure that data can be used across the country without it leaving the originating institution, enhancing collaboration while protecting privacy. The project includes building a toolkit for researchers, establishing a national participant registry, and developing a lung health assessment tool. Additionally, it will provide funding, training, and mentorship over five years, involving community partners and leveraging a multi-disciplinary team’s expertise to facilitate better lung health research in Canada.

Team Grant: Lung Health – Inflammation and Lung Health

Title: Immune dysanapsis: Updating the paradigm of inflammation and lung health trajectories in diverse populations to achieve lifelong health for all
Principal Investigators: Benjamin M. Smith, Jeffrey R. Brook, Dany Doiron, Qingling Duan, Zihang Lu, Donald Sin, Padmaja Subbarao.
Co-Investigators: Jean Bourbeau, Mylinh Duong, Rachel L Eddy, Meaghan J Jones, Miranda A Kirby,

This research proposal aims to explore how inflammation and lung growth interact, particularly in diverse populations, to develop better strategies for maintaining lung health throughout life. The concept of “immune dysanapsis,” which links impaired lung growth with prolonged inflammation and increased disease risk, will be examined. The study will involve a team of experts in various fields, including respiratory epidemiology and lung immunobiology, and will focus on a wide range of populations differing in age, genetic backgrounds, and living environments. The goal is to identify key exposures and critical periods that can be targeted to prevent lung disease and promote lifelong respiratory health.

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$2 million dollars awarded to RI-MUHC team studying lung health: Dr. Benjamin Smith receives CIHR funding to lead research on inflammation and lung health in diverse populations. RI-MUHC News. July 18, 2024

Dal researcher leads national team awarded $3.5‑million CIHR grant to improve lung health. Dal News. July 18, 2024

Meet the research teams tackling lung health threats. CIHR News. July 22, 2024

The post CIHR Lung Health Team Grants appeared first on Meakins-Christie Laboratories.

“Previous studies have demonstrated associations between lung structure and mortality among heavy smokers, where lung structure may reflect the cumulative effects of smoking. Our study now demonstrates associations between native lung structure and mortality in a general population sample, including among never-smokers.”

Dr. Benjamin Smith

The study included over 6,500 adult participants from multi-ethnic backgrounds in six different regions of the United States who had a mean age of 62 years at the outset of the study in 2000. The results of this study showed that, overall, individuals with larger lungs had a higher resistance to COPD or other lung diseases. An earlier study revealed that dysanapsis, or smaller airway-to-lung ratio, leads to a greater vulnerability to pollutants.

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All airway trees are not created equal, July 20, 2023. RI-MUHC News.

Read the publication

Association of dysanapsis with mortality among older adults Vameghestahbanati M, Sack C, Wysoczanski A, Hoffman EA, Angelini E, Allen NB, Bertoni AG, Guo J, Jacobs DR Jr, Kaufman JD, Laine A, Lin CL, Malinsky D, Michos ED, Oelsner EC, Shea SJ, Watson KE, Benedetti A, Barr RG, Smith BM. Eur Respir J. 2023 Jun 8;61(6):2300551. doi: 10.1183/13993003.00551-2023. PMID: 37263750.

Dr. Benjamin Smith is the senior author of the study and a researcher at the Meakins-Christie Laboratories and the Research Institute of the MUHC.

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• Dao Nguyen: Programme de bourses de Chercheur-boursier de Mérite. Title: Les infections respiratoires: de la microbiologie aux interactions hote-pathogenes.
• Jonathon Campbell: Programme de bourses de Chercheur-boursier Junior 1. Title: Éclairer la conception, le coût, et la mise en œuvre des programmes d’élimination de la tuberculose.
• Faiz Ahmad Khan: Programme de bourses de Chercheur-boursier Clinicien Senior. Title: Recherche en partenariat avec les communautés pour l’amélioration des soins de la tuberculose et de la santé respiratoire au Nunavik.
• Benjamin Smith: Programme de bourses de Chercheur-boursier Clinicien Senior. Title: Poumons résilients pour la vie.

The post 2023-2024 Salary Awards appeared first on Meakins-Christie Laboratories.

Applicants: Ben Smith, Jun Ding, Larry Lands.
Co-Applicant: Jonathan Spicer
Collaborator: Pierre-Olivier Fiset

Dr. Ben Smith is a member of the Meakins-Christie Laboratories and RECRU, Scientist in the Translational Research in Respiratory Diseases Program and Associate Director of the Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre.

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Dr. Ben Smith and team win the 2023 RI-MUHC Trottier Webster Innovation award. The MUHC Foundation honours landmark research toward a cure for COPD. RI-MUHC News. March 29, 2023

Dr. Ben Smith and team win the RI-MUHC Trottier Webster Innovation award for landmark research toward a cure for COPD. MUHC News. March 28, 2023

The post MUHC Trottier Webster Innovation Award Goes to RESP Team appeared first on Meakins-Christie Laboratories.

(Time on podcast: 09:50). Dr. Ben Smith hopes to reprogram your lungs with a new study funded by the MUHC Foundation through the Trottier Webster Innovation Award. Dr. Smith, together with his team members Dr. Jun Ding and Dr. Larry Lands are using this funding to test a novel hypothesis. When designing their project, they considered the following: 1) What is a big problem in respiratory diseases and 2) What innovative technique could they apply to help solve this problem. In respiratory diseases, there are many chronic lung diseases, but one does stand out and that is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD is the 3rd leading cause of death worldwide and is associated with reduced quality of life, breathlessness, sputum production, and a lot of health services utilization. COPD tends to be a chronic problem and in some individuals, the disease can progress quickly. Unfortunately, no game changing treatment currently exists. To hopefully identify novel COPD treatments, the team turned to RNA technologies. There have been major advances in RNA therapeutics in recent years (think of COVID-19). This project will explore this technology in COPD. Cells in our lungs need to divide and maintain themselves over our lifespan. The current understanding for COPD is that those cells that help to maintain the lung have become “exhausted”. They cannot divide and regenerate the lung to the same extent that a normal lung can. The progenitor cells in the lung of COPD patients tend to be exhausted and this may lead to the recurring symptoms and infections these patients experience. This study will look at which genes are turned on or turned off in these healthy vs “exhausted ” COPD cells. Then the team will test if they can deliver RNA in an aerosol mist to try to reprogram these exhausted lung cells into a more youthful lung cell so that it could continue to maintain the lung.

(Time on podcast: 19:53). Dr. Deborah Assayag describes how she is helping patients with interstitial lung disease ILD) breathe easier. The Montreal Chest institute has a clinic specialized in ILDs. ILDs are a group of disease that affect the lung tissue and are associated with progressing inflammation and scarring of lung tissue. There are many things that can cause ILDs, such as exposures (asbestos, autoimmune diseases) or even genetic predisposition. It comes as no surprise that ILDs can significantly affect patients’ lives. They experience shortness of breath and suffer from chronic cough, which can limit their daily activities. As the disease progresses, they often have to go on oxygen therapy and their life expectance is shortened. ILDs are rare when compared to asthma and COPD, but the lack of effective treatment options makes this an important disease to study. The ILD clinic at the Montreal Chest Institute is gathering as much clinical information on its patients to really understand the natural history of the disease. With this information, the ILD clinic will be able to better understand risk factors that trigger or worsen the disease. There is also the risk that there are many patients that are not diagnosed or misdiagnosed – delays in diagnosis (between 1-3 years) can really impact patients’ lives. Dr. Assayag’s research program builds upon her clinical experience and allows her to identify the gaps in the field of ILDs and find innovative ways to address these gaps in knowledge.

Listen to the Podcast

Understanding the care in palliative care. The MUHC Foundation’s Health Matters. February 19, 2023.

Web: https://bit.ly/3CvxdMb
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/32HFxrc
Apple: https://apple.co/35NvItS

The post Health Matters: Reprogramming Lungs Against COPD appeared first on Meakins-Christie Laboratories.

James Martin. Co-PI: Maziar Divangahi. Determinants of susceptibility to influenza infection in pregnant mice. Ranked 1st in the Respiratory System Committee!

Benjamin Smith. Co-PIs: Andrea Benedetti, Nicole Ezer. Improving Canadian Lung Cancer Screening Efficiency with a Computed Tomography Risk Classifier. Ranked 1st in the Public, Community & Population Health Committee.

Sushmita Pamidi. Co-PI: John Kimoff. Understanding Barriers and Facilitators to the Treatment of Sleep-Disordered Breathing in Pregnancy and Postpartum.

Deborah Assayag. Co-PI: Andrea Benedetti. Sex and gender based disparities in the treatment of patients with interstitial lung diseases. (Bridge Funding)

The post CIHR Project Grant Results – Fall 2022 appeared first on Meakins-Christie Laboratories.

The winners for best oral presentation were:

Julia Chronopoulos (PhD student with James Martin & Maziar Divangahi)

Jessica Yu (MSc student with Marta Kaminska)

The winners for best poster presentation were:

Poster Group 1: Jun Ping (Dora) Xiong (MSc student with Anne-Marie Lauzon)

Poster Group 2: Marwa El Sheikh (MSc student with Salman Qureshi)

Poster Group 3: Eisha Ahmed (PhD student with Bruce Mazer) & Motahareh Vameghestahbanati (PhD student with Benjamin Smith)

Poster Group 4: Rui Sun (PhD student with James Martin)

The post RESP Research Day Oral and Poster Presentation Winners appeared first on Meakins-Christie Laboratories.

Read the Article

Upper and Lower Airway Dysanapsis and Airflow Obstruction Among Older Adults. Smith BM, Wiemken A, Hoffman EA, Keenan BT, Allen NB, Bertoni AG, Jacobs DR Jr, Michos ED, Watson KE, Redline S, Schwab RJ, Barr RG, Heckbert SR. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2022 Jun 9. doi: 10.1164/rccm.202202-0353LE. Online ahead of print.

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