Health Matters: Bringing awareness to rare diseases
Arnold Kristof, MD, speaks with Tarah Schwartz on an MUHC Foundation’s Health Matters podcast, discussing LAM and other rare diseases, and his hopes for future research in this area.
Chronic Airways Disease Theme: Chronic airway diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cystic fibrosis, and bronchopulmonary dysplasia share common features of chronic airflow obstruction and structural changes of the airways. These disorders are associated with an underlying inflammatory process that is driven by genetic susceptibility as well as environmental factors such as allergens and cigarette smoke. The main research questions being investigated focus on elucidating the basic mechanisms that lead to the development of chronic airways disease. Studies are also attempting to identify and characterize the clinical heterogeneity of these diseases in order to better personalize prognostic, diagnostic and therapeutic tools.
Major scientific objectives of the chronic airways diseases theme include: (1) Elucidate pathogenetic mechanisms and develop novel therapeutics for allergic inflammation & airway hyperresponsiveness. (2) Understand the cellular and molecular basis for irritant (including air pollution & cigarette smoke) -induced lung disease, and its relevance to COPD and the Asthma-COPD Overlap Syndrome (ACOS). (3) Ascertain the biological basis for different asthma phenotypes, particularly severe asthma that is resistant to usual therapies.
View posts, news, and publications related to this research theme below.
Arnold Kristof, MD, speaks with Tarah Schwartz on an MUHC Foundation’s Health Matters podcast, discussing LAM and other rare diseases, and his hopes for future research in this area.
Carolyn Baglole dispel myths about cannabis use in medicine as part of McGill Medical Cannabis Course
Congratulations to Basil Petrof, Jun Ding and Faiz Ahmad Khan who were funded in the Fall 2021 Project Grant Competition!
Dr. Dennis Jensen has been renewed as the Canada Research Chair, Tier 2, in Clinical Exercise and Respiratory Physiology Research, by the CIHR
Irah King and Ben Smith talk about the microbiome and resilient lungs, respectively on the MUHC Health Matters Podcast
Carolyn Baglole speaks on what researchers are learning about cannabis on Health Matters with the MUHC Foundation
Dr. Jean Bourbeau delivered the Thomas L. Petty Memorial Lecture on the topic of self-management behavior modification for patients with COPD
Dr. Mazer has been awarded the inaugural Donald Stark Award for Excellence in Leadership in the Canadian Allergy Community.
Dr. Martin received the CTS 2021 Honorary Lecture Award in recognition of his contributions to respiratory medicine.
Dr. Jean Bourbeau is a newly elected Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, a prestigious honor in health sciences.