SickKids

Respiratory Medicine
Respiratory Medicine
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Research activities

Meet our researchers

Felix A. Ratjen
Reshma Amin
Sharon Dell
Hartmut Grasemann
Theo Moraes
Indra Narang
Melinda Solomon
Padmaja Subbarao
Neil Sweezey

Major research endeavors

Current Areas of Research

  • Clinical and epidemiological studies in patients with asthma and cystic fibrosis
  • Translational studies on airway inflammation and infection in cystic fibrosis
  • Effect of sex hormones in airway inflammation
  • Defining the role of novel genes in lung development
  • Aerosol therapy and exercise physiology.
  • Childhood Asthma Management Program Continuation Study
  • Pulmonary sequelae of sickle cell disease that is currently being addressed in a number of research studies
  • The CHILD study, a large birth cohort study to elucidate the factors important for the development of asthma in early childhood,
  •  Air pollution lung health effects,
  •  North American multi-center clinical studies of children with Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia
  • Clinical and physiological studies related to sleep disordered breathing
  • Obesity and cardiac disorders such as cardiomyopathies
  • Lung inflammation as well as immunological mechanisms involved in immunity against respiratory viruses.
  • The role of arginase and NO deficiency in CF lung disease
  • Multi-centre studies on azithromycin in Pseudomonas negative CF patients
  •  The role of aspergillus infection in
  • The multi-center study on the use of hypertonic saline as an early intervention strategy
  • Developing new outcomes measures to assess improvement in CF lung disease
  • The BREATHE program, a study to develop CFTR corrector therapy funded by CIHR and the Canadian CF foundation.

 

Other areas of applied research

  • an 80 site study in Australia, Canada and the US on Denufosol, a P2Y receptor agonist that activates chloride conductance through alternative chloride channels
  • Clinical drug studies targeting the basic defect in CF
  •  Collaboration exists with the adult CF program at St, Michael’s Hospital led by Dr. Tullis in both clinical care and many areas of research
  • Collaboration with the Lung Transplant Team at Toronto General  led by Dr. Keshavjee.
  • Newborn screening for Cystic Fibrosis