Dr. Tillie L. Hackett

Associate Director, Centre for Heart Lung Innovation, UBC

Dr. Hackett received her BSc. (2002) in Biochemistry and Pharmacology and her Ph.D. (2006) in Cellular and Biological Sciences from the University of Southampton, in the UK under the mentorship of Dr. J.A. Warner and Prof. S.T. Holgate. In 2006, Dr Hackett joined the James Hogg Research Centre at the University of British Columbia, Canada funded by a Canadian Institutes for Health, Canadian Lung Association and Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research post doctoral fellowships with Drs D.A. Knight and T. Bai. Dr. Hackett then undertook additional postdoctoral training at the University Medical Centre Groningen fundied by the European Respiratory Society, with Prof. D.S. Postma and Dr. H.I. Heijink.

Dr Hackett began her academic appointment at UBC as an Assistant Professor in 2013. Her research program is focused on understanding the disruption of normal repair processes within the epithelial-mesenchymal trophic unit (EMTU) of the lung and how this propagates inflammation and tissue remodeling in patients with obstructive lung disease. Her laboratory uses an innovative and targeted approach to isolate cells from donor lungs guided by Computed Tomography imaging. This resource, The Human Lung Cell Repository, aims to provide highly characterized cells representative of a variety of lung disease states and healthy individuals for use in clinical bio-assays of disease. The goal of this research program is to further understand the airway microenvironment to determine therapeutic targets to prevent the initiation and perpetuation of pathological processes which contribute to obstructive airway diseases like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Her research is funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Canadian Lung Association, Parker B. Francis Foundation, Providence Health Care Research Institute and UBC Faculty of Medicine.