Platform development to assay immune cell chemotaxis in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an important global health problem afflicting 384 million people and causing 3 million deaths worldwide each year. Currently, there are no effective therapies for COPD patients. In this proposal, we are developing a novel technology that will both monitor the severity of disease in COPD patients, and allow researchers to better study potential targets and pathways for the design of new COPD drugs. Immune cells, such as neutrophils and macrophages, play important roles in the lungs of COPD patients. Our new technology will be able to measure the mobility of neutrophils and macrophages taken directly from COPD patients to assess their disease conditions. Further, this system will improve the way researchers measure these immune cells in large-scale studies for advancement of COPD diagnoses and drug discovery. This project aligns with the mandate of our partner organization, Providence Airway Centre (PAC), to enable researchers to accelerate the COPD biomarker and drug discovery pipeline.

Faculty Supervisor:

Don Sin

Student:

Hiroto Takuguchi

Partner:

Providence Health Care

Discipline:

Medicine

Sector:

Medical devices

University:

Program: