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.

Exploring how chronic exercise shapes immune health in aging! 🏃‍♂️🧬Milad Vahedi shared powerful insights at HLI’s Semina...
04/01/2026

Exploring how chronic exercise shapes immune health in aging! 🏃‍♂️🧬

Milad Vahedi shared powerful insights at HLI’s Seminar Series on how regular physical activity can help regulate immune responses, reduce inflammation, and support healthier aging. In his talk, Chronic Exercise as a Modulator of Immune Responses in Aging: An Evolutionary Perspective, Milad highlighted how movement may play an important role in preventing and treating aging-related disease. 💥

👉 Read the full article here: https://www.hli.ubc.ca/2026/04/milad-vahedi-on-chronic-exercise-and-immune-responses-in-aging/

🌬️✨ Join us for the next session of the !Dr. Jayakar V. Nayak, MD, PhD, from Stanford University School of Medicine, wi...
03/26/2026

🌬️✨ Join us for the next session of the !

Dr. Jayakar V. Nayak, MD, PhD, from Stanford University School of Medicine, will be sharing his exciting research on:

“Insights into Upper Airway Stem Cell Biology and Regeneration using CRISPR gene editing and Multi-scaled Transcriptomics

Dr. Nayak’s team is using cutting-edge gene editing to treat cystic fibrosis and sinus infections by fixing the cells in the airway. They’re also using new technologies to better understand how cells in our immune system and airways work together, especially in people with chronic sinus issues. Dr. Nayak will talk about their progress, challenges, and how this research could lead to better treatments.

📅 Date: Friday, March 27th, 2026
⏰ Time: 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
📍 Location: James Hogg Conference Centre (JHCC), Room 103

🎓 This event is open to everyone—come learn about these groundbreaking advances in health research! 💡

🌬️🧬 Join us for another session at the !Dr. Andrew Emili (PhD) from Oregon Health & Science University will be speaking...
03/19/2026

🌬️🧬 Join us for another session at the !

Dr. Andrew Emili (PhD) from Oregon Health & Science University will be speaking about:
“Decoding Epithelial Plasticity through Dynamic Multi-Protein Assemblies: Mechanistic Insights into Early Cancer Progression.”

Did you know that cells can change how they behave when they’re under long-term stress—even without any changes to their DNA? In this talk, Dr. Emili will explain how groups of proteins inside our cells work together to control these changes, and how understanding this could help us detect and stop diseases like cancer earlier.

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

🎓 Everyone is welcome—come learn about exciting new discoveries in cancer research and how they could improve early detection and care! 💡

Aileen Hsieh, is a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Tillie Hackett's lab. Her research focuses on mucus plugs and airway r...
03/06/2026

Aileen Hsieh, is a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Tillie Hackett's lab. Her research focuses on mucus plugs and airway remodelling in chronic lung diseases like asthma and COPD, and uses advanced multi-resolution imaging and spatial single-cell approaches to understand disease heterogeneity.
This image captures dense mucin accumulation within the lumen of a small airway from an asthma patient. The purple and green show the different mucins present, MUC5AC in magenta and MUC5B in green. In health, goblet cells produce MUC5B, but in asthma, they start to produce MUC5AC, contributing to overaccumulation of mucus. This can lead to the formation of a mucus plug, which fills the airway lumen, blocking airflow from passing through.
By visualizing mucus composition and architecture, this image highlights the need for therapies that can effectively clear mucus in asthma.
Another beautiful compelling submission to our Scientific Imaging Contest!

This picture of Movat's stain on heart tissue was taken by Amrit Samra, HLI’s Histology Core Manager. Movat’s Pentachrom...
03/05/2026

This picture of Movat's stain on heart tissue was taken by Amrit Samra, HLI’s Histology Core Manager. Movat’s Pentachrome stain is a specialized histology technique, often used in cardiovascular pathology, designed to simultaneously visualize five distinct tissue components (collagen, elastin, muscle, mucin, and fibrin) in a single section.

🌬️🫁 Join us for another session at the !Dr. Benjamin Smith (MD) from McGill University will be speaking about: “The Dec...
03/05/2026

🌬️🫁 Join us for another session at the !

Dr. Benjamin Smith (MD) from McGill University will be speaking about: “The Decline of Lung Function.”
We often use breathing tests to check lung health—but many of the ideas we rely on come from “one-time” snapshots. In this talk, Dr. Smith will share what longer-term research is teaching us about how and why lung function changes over time, and what that could mean for preventing lung problems earlier and improving care.

📅 Date: Friday, March 6th, 2026
⏰ Time: 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
📍 Location: James Hogg Conference Centre (JHCC), Room 103
🎓 Everyone is welcome—come learn more about lung health and the latest research insights! 💡

"Helping Hands; a bench scientist's best friend."Basak Sahin is a Research Technician and Ashwinaa Vijayaruban is a Co-o...
03/04/2026

"Helping Hands; a bench scientist's best friend."

Basak Sahin is a Research Technician and Ashwinaa Vijayaruban is a Co-op Student who work in the Molecular Phenotyping Core Laboratory (MPCL) at HLI. MPCL is fee-for-service, multi-user laboratory serving researchers and clinicians both within the HLI and Providence Healthcare, and external groups from the Lower Mainland research community and beyond.
Basak writes: “As the nature of our jobs go, things can get hectic at times. Clinical samples can come early or late and handling multiple clinical studies means they can all come at once. Students schedule their experiments and training whenever their own schedule allows, meaning they can also come all at once depending on exams etc. And, of course, it is when we are the busiest that an instrument fails...
So what do we do when things get a little too hard or hectic? Ask the little lab fairy for a helping hand. Or integrate play to keep our morale high… but the fairy sounds more magical! Gloves during the day, glove dolls working away at night.
(I just wish they would actually do some of our work…)”
Thank you for your contribution to our Imaging Contest, Basak! Life in the lab can get hectic indeed. 🔬

This image of a coronary vessel was taken by Yuancheng Mao (Mao), a postdoctoral research fellow supervised by Dr. Gordo...
02/27/2026

This image of a coronary vessel was taken by Yuancheng Mao (Mao), a postdoctoral research fellow supervised by Dr. Gordon Francis.

His research focuses on identifying new markers of smooth muscle cell–derived foam cells and studying the function of lipase A (LIPA). In particular, he investigates whether increasing lysosomal acid lipase (LAL) activity in smooth muscle cells can enhance cholesterol efflux and potentially provide a therapeutic benefit in atherosclerosis.

Mao captured this image while validating a macrophage marker (CD45).

He writes: "During the process, I noticed that this cross-section of a coronary vessel strikingly resembles the Earth from space. Although this particular image did not yield specific experimental data, its structure was unexpectedly beautiful. It is not common to see such a well-defined and visually compelling coronary architecture using confocal microscopy, and this moment of visual discovery made my day. It’s a reminder that even in highly technical research, there are moments of art and wonder within science!"

Thank you for sharing your beautiful imaging, Mao!

🌬️📊 Join us for another exciting session at the !Dr. Scott Lear, a health expert from SFU and St. Paul’s Hospital, will...
02/26/2026

🌬️📊 Join us for another exciting session at the !
Dr. Scott Lear, a health expert from SFU and St. Paul’s Hospital, will present “The Physical Activity Paradox.”
He’ll explore new research suggesting that not all types of physical activity are good for you, especially certain activities done at work. If this is true, it may be time to rethink health guidelines to consider the environment we’re in.
📅 Date: Friday, February 27th, 2026
⏰ Time: 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
📍 Location: James Hogg Conference Centre (JHCC), Room 103
🎓 Don’t miss this important discussion on how physical activity impacts health! 💡

🌬️📊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/

Address

Room 166/1081 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC
V6Z1Y6

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 4pm
Tuesday 8am - 4pm
Wednesday 8am - 4pm
Thursday 8am - 4pm
Friday 8am - 4pm

Telephone

604-806-8346

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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.