St Michael’s Hospital is already a world leader in ALI/ARDS basic science and clinical research. Our investigators study different aspects of ALI, from epidemiology to predictive and prognostic biomarkers and genetic polymorphisms to treatment interventions.
One major research interest relates to the lung injury caused by mechanical ventilation, the supportive therapy necessary to sustain life in patients with severe respiratory failure. Termed ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI), our focus is on understanding the mechanisms by which injurious forms of mechanical ventilation can lead to multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, and in developing more physiologic approaches to mechanical ventilation, as well as developing non-ventilatory approaches that can mitigate the severity of VILI.
ALI/ARDS is also a major focus of the Toronto ARDS Critical Illness Cell Therapy (TACCT) group, established and directed by Drs. John Laffey and Arthur Slutsky. This group is a network of respiratory and cardiovascular research programs (clinician and basic scientists) in Toronto with an interest in cell therapies for ALI/ARDS and brings together experts in cell biology and genomics, pre-clinical ARDS research and translation to clinical trials.
The research environment is intended to foster productive interactions between basic and clinical scientists. Members of the research group include fellows and faculty from the departments of Medicine, Anesthesia, Surgery and Emergency Medicine. We aim to nurture and develop the most promising young scientists to become the next generation of world-class lung injury researchers. We expect that this collaboration will promote translational and clinical research that will lead to reduced mortality from ALI and a better quality of life for survivors.
