Research summary
Asthma affects one in seven Canadian children, leading to poor lung growth, cardiovascular disease and premature death. Although current therapies can control symptoms, they do not prevent the loss of lung function associated with asthma.
Dr. Padmaja Subbarao, Canada Research Chair in Pediatric Asthma and Lung Health, is working to improve the level of care that pediatric asthma patients receive. She and her research team are integrating longitudinal lung function measures from infancy with genetics and exposure measurements to develop tools to diagnose asthma subtypes. They are then identifying causal risk factors associated with each subtype to develop prevention strategies. In addition, they are producing tests to monitor therapies aimed at preserving lung function from infancy onward.