Overview
Critical illness researchers at London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute (LHSCRI) focus on studying diseases and syndromes encountered in intensive care units (ICUs) with the goal of translating the discoveries to improve health care for patients.
To provide a unified base for multidisciplinary studies addressing pathophysiology of critical illnesses, the Centre for Critical Illness Research (CCIR) was established in 2003. The CCIR provides the framework to optimize the translation of experimental work into novel clinical approaches for diagnosis and prognosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases and syndromes encountered in the ICU.
Research Goals
We study the causes and consequences of remote organ injury and multiple organ dysfunctions that occur during critical illnesses, especially during sepsis, which is the leading cause of death in ICUs. Many of these illnesses are associated with out-of-control inflammation. While inflammation is required to fight infection and help your body recover, if not controlled properly, inflammation can cause serious damage within the body, often leading to further organ injury and ultimately, death. Common themes across research groups within the CCIR include sepsis, severe inflammation and blood vessel function.
What is Sepsis?
Sepsis is a global and life-threatening complication of an infection. Sepsis occurs when chemicals released by bacteria (or other pathogens such as viruses or fungi) enter the bloodstream, triggering a severe immune response throughout the body (i.e. systemic (out-of-control) inflammation). This response can lead to changes that damage multiple organ systems (e.g. blood vessels, lungs, brain, heart, etc.), causing them to fail. To date there is no specific treatment to fight against sepsis.
Sepsis is the main cause of death within the ICU and treatment of sepsis represents more than 45 per cent of health-care costs related to the ICU.
The sepsis group within the CCIR are members of Sepsis Canada and the National Preclinical Sepsis Platform consortium. They also provide sepsis-related training at a national level through Life Threatening Illness National Group (LifTING) and Sepsis Canada Research Training Program.
Research Groups
Multidisciplinary teams consisting of both laboratory-based and clinical scientists work together to facilitate research discoveries and the translation of findings related to sepsis and other systemic disorders encountered in the ICU. Our research areas include:
Our research group investigates both acute and chronic lung injuries. We study acute conditions such as sepsis-induced lung injury, ventilation-induced lung injury and vaping-related damage. This research aims to understand the processes involved in developing lung dysfunction to develop better treatment strategies.
As part of chronic lung conditions research, our focus is on interstitial lung disease (ILD), which encompasses a range of disorders marked by lung inflammation and scarring.
Our research in ILDs aims to enhance diagnostic accuracy and prognosis evaluation. We achieve this by profiling gene expression patterns across different ILDs. Overall, our studies bring research from labs to clinics to improve lung health.
Our research group focuses on understanding molecular mechanisms, developing new treatments and identifying biomarkers that indicate the causes of heart-injury and dysfunction, including:
- Myocardial ischemia/reperfusion;
- Sepsis;
- Doxorubicin (a drug for cancer treatment); and
- Diabetes.
Our research group examines in vivo microvascular function (e.g. capillary perfusion, tissue oxygenation, oxidant stress, tissue injury, apoptosis, inflammatory cell recruitment etc.) under normal healthy conditions and under health stressors like sepsis, trauma, and kidney dysfunction/hemodialysis.
Our research group studies how certain cells in different parts of the body, like the brain, lungs, heart, and muscles, react when there’s an injury or disease. We look at how the cells that line the inside of the small blood vessels interact with immune cells, like neutrophils and macrophages, and how these interactions might lead to problems with blood vessels.
We focus on understanding how stresses coming from infections, injuries, or diabetes can damage these cells. To do this, we use advanced lab techniques to make our experiments as close to real-life conditions as possible. For example, we use special tools to keep cells in conditions that mimic their natural environment and to monitor their health in real-time.
Our team works closely with another research centre to handle and analyze human samples. We look for specific markers in these samples that can help diagnose diseases, predict their progression, or find new treatments. We also explore how carbon monoxide-releasing molecules (CORMs) might help control inflammation.
Severe trauma to one or multiple body parts or organs can result in production of inflammatory chemicals by our own body, resulting in the development of inflammation.
Our research group looks at how these injuries affect the brain and muscles. We use two main ways to study this:
- In vivo: This means studying real-life conditions, like using special preclinical models to simulate injuries or problems with blood flow in limbs.
- In vitro: This means studying cells or tissues in the lab, like using methods to mimic low oxygen levels or stretching.
By using both methods, we learn more about how injuries cause problems in the brain and muscles.
Our research helps surgeons make better decisions for patients who need urgent surgery, aiming to improve their quality of life. It also helps engineers create better implants and tools for surgeries. These new designs can reduce the need for more surgeries, lower inflammation, and prevent implant problems, while helping fractures heal faster.
We work on designing and testing new implants for broken bones, spinal surgeries, and other surgical tools. We use traditional metals, new fiber-reinforced materials, and 3D-printed materials to make these tools.