Centre for Heart Lung Innovation

Centre for Heart Lung Innovation The Centre for Heart Lung Innovation is a St. Paul's Hospital and UBC Research Centre James Hogg (2013 Gairdner Wightman Award Winner) and Peter Paré.

The Centre for Heart Lung Innovation (HLI), previously known as iCAPTURE and the James Hogg Research Centre, was established as the Pulmonary Research Laboratory in 1977 by Drs. Since then it has grown dramatically in scope, size, and worldwide impact. Basic and clinician scientists work together in an exciting multidisciplinary environment to address vital issues in heart, lung, and critical care disease. Situated within Providence Health Care’s St. Paul’s Hospital, a University of British Columbia teaching hospital, the HLI is a translational research centre using our basic molecular and cellular research discoveries to develop innovative approaches to prevent and treat human disease through our complementary and connected clinical research. Our focus is on developing solutions to the biggest challenges: atherosclerosis and heart failure, emphysema and other chronic pulmonary diseases, severe infections such as COVID19 and multiple organ failure. These diseases are leading causes of morbidity, mortality and cost to society in Canada and the world. Combined, these diseases are by far the greatest killers. We seek out the underlying causes so that we can develop strategies for prevention and treatment. We link our basic discoveries to improved health care through clinical research, teaching, and by translating new knowledge into clinical practice at St. Paul’s Hospital and around the world. Since disease involves both the patient and the environment, our focus on prevention seeks to understand and prevent those patient-environment interactions that lead to disease and disability. The Centre for Heart Lung Innovation has a unique multidisciplinary milieu that takes the best attributes of a busy tertiary care hospital (St. Paul’s) and combines them with the best attributes of a leading academic institution (UBC) to generate novel insight, knowledge, and solutions. It is not uncommon within the HLI to find a mathematician, a pathologist, a surgeon, and a basic scientist, joining forces to attack otherwise intractable problems. We link basic science with clinical innovation; we link a broad knowledge of inflammation with focused investigation into heart, lung, and critical care disease; we link universities, faculties, and departments together to innovate in ways that otherwise are not possible.

🌬️📊Join us for another insightful session at the ! Dr. Pat Camp, Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Th...
02/19/2026

🌬️📊Join us for another insightful session at the !

Dr. Pat Camp, Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at UBC, will present **“Using the Learning Health System Engine to Understand and Address Gaps in Spirometry Access: A BC Story.”** She will review current gaps in spirometry service delivery and their impact on patient health outcomes, introduce the Learning Health System Engine as a framework to address these limitations, and highlight the CIHR-funded SPIRO project aimed at improving access to spirometry across BC.

📅 Date: Friday, February 20th, 2026
⏰ Time: 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
📍 Location: James Hogg Conference Centre (JHCC), Room 103

🎓 Don’t miss this important discussion on improving respiratory care access and advancing patient-centered health systems! 💡

HLI is proud to celebrate the achievements of Dr. Janice Leung and Dr. Scott Tebbutt and their co-applicants! These inve...
02/06/2026

HLI is proud to celebrate the achievements of Dr. Janice Leung and Dr. Scott Tebbutt and their co-applicants! These investigators have been awarded over $1.8 million in funding through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Fall 2025 Project Grant competition. Dr. Leung’s project, MAPping Lung DiseasE Through Social Epigenetics, Exposures, and Disparities (MAPLE-SEED) Study, and Dr. Tebbutt’s project, Multi-omics plasma biomarkers for early detection of cardiac allograft vasculopathy in adult heart transplant recipients, will drive innovative research in , , and .
This work will advance scientific discovery and improve patient outcomes.

Congratulations to all those involved in these projects!

🔗Read the announcement on our website via link:https://www.hli.ubc.ca/2026/02/supporting-research-that-improves-lung-and-heart-health/

This week, our very own Dr. Pat Camp was featured in UBC Today: Research in Focus 🎉Research in Focus highlights the peop...
02/06/2026

This week, our very own Dr. Pat Camp was featured in UBC Today: Research in Focus 🎉
Research in Focus highlights the people and ideas behind the impactful research happening across the University of British Columbia.
We’re proud to see her meaningful work recognized and shared across the UBC community.
👉 Read the feature here: https://ubctoday.ubc.ca/news/february-02-2026/research-focus-pat-camp

🚨 Join us for an enlightening talk at the ! 🫁 Dr. Sarah Hedtrich, an expert in pharmaceutical sciences at UBC, will dis...
02/05/2026

🚨 Join us for an enlightening talk at the ! 🫁 Dr. Sarah Hedtrich, an expert in pharmaceutical sciences at UBC, will discuss "Topical Gene Therapy to Rescue Cystic Fibrosis." She’ll explore cutting-edge advancements in pulmonary lipid nanoparticle–mediated gene therapy, a promising strategy to deliver corrective genetic material and treat genetic lung diseases like cystic fibrosis.

📅 Date: 6th February 2026
⏰ Time: 11:30am - 12:30pm
📍 Location: JHCC, Room 103

🎓 Don’t miss out on this groundbreaking discussion about the future of gene therapy and lung health! 💡

Aakar Chatha is a PhD student in the Wang Lab who is building 3D models of the artery to study responses after vessel in...
02/04/2026

Aakar Chatha is a PhD student in the Wang Lab who is building 3D models of the artery to study responses after vessel injury.

Here he has taken an image of smooth muscle cells in a culture plate, showing the cells arranging into a linear structure as the cells approach confluence.

The cells have been stained with fluorescently-labeled phalloidin, which binds to the actin cytoskeleton to show cell structure (green). The nuclei are shown in blue (DAPI staining), and in red is a cell tracing dye.

Aakar took this image to analyze the morphology of smooth muscle cells between being grown in a culture plate versus how they grow naturally in a 3D extracellular environment.

Beautiful imaging from the Wang lab!

Aakar Chatha

🚨 Join us for an exciting talk at the ! 🫀 Dr. Richard Bennett, a heart expert from St. Paul’s and Vancouver General Hos...
01/29/2026

🚨 Join us for an exciting talk at the ! 🫀 Dr. Richard Bennett, a heart expert from St. Paul’s and Vancouver General Hospitals, will discuss how we’re improving treatments for dangerous heart rhythms. He’ll share the latest breakthroughs and how doctors are using special techniques to help patients with heart issues.

📅 Date: 30th January 2026
⏰ Time: 11:30am - 12:30pm
📍 Location: JHCC, Room 103

🎓 Don't miss out on this important discussion about heart health! 💡

Dr. Stephen Wright joined HLI as a Principal Investigator in May 2025. His research explores the mechanisms by which the...
01/28/2026

Dr. Stephen Wright joined HLI as a Principal Investigator in May 2025. His research explores the mechanisms by which the lungs and heart adapt to functional changes across the lifespan and the full spectrum of health and disease.
Recently, HLI Master’s student Josie Tuong sat down with Dr. Wright to discuss his research program and academic journey.

Check out the article here: https://www.hli.ubc.ca/2026/01/a-conversation-with-dr-stephen-wright-new-principal-investigator-at-the-hli/

Join us for the HLI Friday Seminar Series with Dr. Richard Ramonell, a professor from the University of Pittsburgh, as h...
01/22/2026

Join us for the HLI Friday Seminar Series with Dr. Richard Ramonell, a professor from the University of Pittsburgh, as he discusses a new angle in understanding asthma. His talk, "Investigating Non-T2 Mechanisms of Asthma Pathobiology," will explore why some people with severe asthma have different types of inflammation than traditionally thought, and what that could mean for finding better treatments.

Join us for the HLI Friday Seminar Series with Dr. Laura Arbour, Professor of Medical Genetics at UBC, as she presents o...
12/04/2025

Join us for the HLI Friday Seminar Series with Dr. Laura Arbour, Professor of Medical Genetics at UBC, as she presents on "Reducing Genetic and Genomic Health Disparities for Indigenous People of Canada" from the Silent Genomes Project. This work focuses on improving genetic healthcare access and equity for Indigenous populations, addressing the unique challenges and solutions of genomic diagnosis.

Pneumonia remains a major global killer, taking 6,000 lives every day. Join us as Dr. Jim Russell shares updates on kidn...
11/27/2025

Pneumonia remains a major global killer, taking 6,000 lives every day. Join us as Dr. Jim Russell shares updates on kidney and liver complications, how AI is changing pneumonia care, and the promise of new RNA-based therapies and other non-antibiotic drugs.

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Our Story

The Centre for Heart Lung Innovation (HLI), located at St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, Canada, is a University of British Columbia (UBC) research centre supported by the UBC Faculty of Medicine and Providence Health Care. Led by Director, Dr. Don Sin, and Associate Director, Dr. Jordan Guenette, investigators and trainees at the Center for Heart Lung Innovation are using the best available technology to address the most critical challenges in heart, lung, blood vessel, and critical care diseases. Our research centre houses a Cellular Imaging and Biophysics Core, a Genetically Engineered Models (GEM) facility, a Histology facility, a Molecular Phenotyping Core (including biobanking services and a NanoString nCounter system), and among the world’s largest heart and lung tissue registries. HLI is transforming patient care by pursuing important research questions, and provides a unique resource and training facility for our many partners in the academic and industrial sectors across Canada and North America.

Our vision is to be a world leader in understanding and eliminating heart, lung, blood vessels, and critical care disease.