UM’s AirSAFE lab the first in Canada to study air pollution and health across disciplines

The UM AirSAFE lab is Canada’s first and only multi-disciplinary research centre dedicated to studying the impact of air quality on human health. Two years after the initiative received transformative gifts and grants, AirSAFE co-leads Dr. Andrew Halayko and Dr. Neeloffer Mookherjee are establishing AirSAFE as a national hub research on air quality and human health.

Dr. Andrew Halayko, Professor, Physiology & Pathophysiology, Internal Medicine

Since 2023, they have secured state-of-the-art equipment, made strides in the construction of three lab spaces, and assembled a team of multidisciplinary researchers to lead work that advances sustainability, health, and well-being for all.

Building Canada’s first multi-disciplinary lab of its kind

At AirSAFE, researchers from across disciplines will work together to understand one of the most immediate parts of everyday life: the air we breathe.

This multi-disciplinary approach, explains Mookherjee, is what makes AirSAFE unique in Canada and a crucial element in the nation’s research infrastructure.

Dr. Neeloffer Mookherjee, Professor, Internal Medicine, Immunology

“We are bringing different disciplines under the same umbrella to answer core questions: when can we define air to be safe, and what are the health effects of what we are breathing?

“We need diverse opinions and voices tackling these questions,” she says.

Today, researchers from the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, Price Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, and Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources are collaborating at AirSAFE, located at the Bannatyne Campus of the University of Manitoba and Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM).

Equipping top researchers with tools to tackle complex health problems

Using top-of-the-line equipment and innovative simulation labs, the research team can study the effects of air pollutants on human health, from cells, airways, and tissues to medication and more.

AirSAFE’s new surfactometer zooms in on a tiny bubble of surfactant visualized on the screen behind the device. Photo by Samuel Sporich.

AirSAFE is now home to Canada’s only new generation, constrained drop surfactometer.

The device measures pulmonary surfactant, a material found in the lungs that supports healthy breathing by preventing lungs from collapsing. Custom-made by a small company out of the University of Hawaii, the device is truly unique, says Halayko.

“It is unique because of the constrained drop analysis it uses, and because it allows for tiny sample volumes to be analyzed.

“This means we can serve as a platform to support national and international clinical trials,” he adds.

By exposing surfactant samples to common air pollutants, researchers can study their impact on breathing and lung health.

Dr. Chris Pascoe, who works closely with Halayko and Mookherjee, is leading research that seeks to understand factors that affect the development of chronic lung diseases, and highlights how another new device at AirSAFE, the physioLens, allows researchers to gather more data in less time.

“With the older piece of equipment, it would take seven to eight hours a day with multiple lung tissue specimens across multiple days if you wanted to get enough data to answer your question.

“This new device can capture all the data that we would capture in eight hours in only an hour,” he says.

Designing better simulations to understand issues that impact Manitobans today

Halayko notes that AirSAFE can empower researchers to gather crucial knowledge and design meaningful solutions thanks to simulation labs that approximate air quality where we live and breathe today.

“We are building a facility that I believe is one of a kind. We are working with experts from the Price Faculty of Engineering to build a diesel engine generating traffic pollution, and we have a biomass combustor that generates wildfire smoke, and what’s unique is that we can mix them. So now it’s real-world air pollution we’re looking at,” he says.

AirSAFE will be equipped with biomass burning and fuel combustion simulation boxes, similar to the current recreational combustion (smoking, vaping) lab. Photo by Samuel Sporich.

Pascoe adds that better simulations streamline better solutions. Colleagues in engineering can test the efficacy of alternative fuels and partner with colleagues in health sciences to understand the impact of those fuels on human health.

Dr. Chris Pascoe, Assistant Professor, Physiology & Pathophysiology

Empowering emerging researchers to uncover life-changing solutions

Beyond leveraging more expertise to solve pressing health questions, AirSAFE also provides a platform for emerging researchers to lead one-of-a-kind projects, accessing interdisciplinary knowledge, mentorship, and collaboration.

Halayko highlights the importance of AirSAFE in training the next generation of researchers right here in Manitoba.

“We are creating a platform for emerging and early-career researchers to do truly unique research. Working in AirSAFE, scholars like Chris [Pascoe], can now do things that nobody in Canada can do. We can set our emerging researchers up for success,” he says.

“With AirSAFE,” adds Mookherjee, “we contribute to a Canadian research infrastructure where any researcher can come in and work from cellular to animal models right up to a human clinical trial. This pipeline also facilitates collaboration between academia, Canadian industry, and government, informing policy and advancing innovation in public health.” 

Investing in sustainable research, health for all, solutions for tomorrow

AirSAFE is training researchers and building a research infrastructure that is unique in Canada, driving the nation’s research capacity forward, attracting international attention, and offering some of the world’s best researchers opportunities to pursue rigorous, meaningful studies that advance health and well-being for all.

As the lab continues to operationalize, the support of partners and community members is an investment in health and well-being for all—the difference between inspiring ideas and lifechanging impact—and as vital as the air we breathe.

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AirSAFE has made great strides in Canada’s research infrastructure thanks to transformative grants from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and Research Manitoba through the CFI Innovation Fund Matching Program.

This project is also made possible by various partners, including the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, the department of internal medicine in the Max Rady College of Medicine, the Price Faculty of Engineering, the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, SAFE Work Manitoba, the University of British Columbia, the Manitoba Lung Association, and the Office of the Vice-President (Research and International) at UM.

Emily Wilson