Dr. Benjamin Smith receives CIHR funding to lead research on inflammation and lung health in diverse populations
SOURCE: RI-MUHC
July 18, 2024
Inflammation plays a pivotal role in determining lung health throughout life. The current paradigm of chronic exposure to pro-inflammatory stimuli causing chronic lung disease has led to marginal and inconsistent improvements in health outcomes. However, an emerging body of evidence suggests that lung growth and immune development are interconnected. When lung growth is impaired, there are implications for health across the lifespan.
To learn more, Benjamin Smith, MD, and his team proposed an ambitious research plan to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Their proposal ranked first in the funding competition, and this week was awarded more than $2 million dollars over five years.
A scientist in the Translational Research in Respiratory Diseases (RESP) Program at the RI‑MUHC and Director, Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE), Dr. Smith will now be able to unite an interdisciplinary team of experts in respiratory epidemiology, medicine, physiology, multi-omics, imaging, environmental exposure assessment and lived experience. The research plan includes diverse and understudied populations from around the world, focussing on the impact of inflammation on growth and aging of the lungs, with the goal of enhancing lifelong lung health.
“Impaired lung development appears to simultaneously reduce physiologic reserve and increase activation of inflammatory pathways that jointly augment susceptibility to pro-inflammatory stimuli and increase disease risk across the lifespan,” says Dr. Smith, who is also Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at McGill University. “This concept is termed ‘immune dysanapsis’— from ‘dys,’ meaning unequal, and ‘anaptixy,’ meaning growth.
“We are excited to begin the work, which will have clinical relevance as well as providing promising pathways to target in future research,” adds Dr. Smith.
“We are very grateful to the CIHR for their support, which will allow us to learn so much more about lung health across the lifespan,” says Dr. Jean Bourbeau, Senior Scientist at the RI-MUHC and Professor in the Department of Medicine at McGill University. Dr. Bourbeau is a co-applicant on the grant, as are two other RI-MUHC researchers from the RESP program and CORE: Dany Doiron, Research Associate, and Sophie É. Collins, postdoctoral fellow.
The project includes collaborators from nine Canadian universities and research institutes: University of British Columbia, University of Manitoba, McMaster University, University of Toronto, SickKids Research Institute, Toronto Metropolitan University, Queen’s University, McGill University and Université Laval.
Congratulations to Dr. Smith and the whole team!
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