Christine Bear

Christine Bear’s research interests and goals have been and continue to be driven by the need to understand the basis for respiratory disease in Cystic Fibrosis and advance therapies that prevent disease or restore normal health. Her work built on the CF gene discovery by Lap Chee Tsui and Dr. Jack Riordan, and her first seminal papers in this field (published in Cell and PNAS-US) showed that the protein product of the CFTR gene functions as a chloride channel to maintain the barrier function of the epithelium lining the airways, enabling clearance of pathogens and respiratory health. Her laboratory led in-vitro and in-vivo studies linking the loss of this function to lung disease and this work laid the foundation for new small molecule therapies that target the basic defect and restore healthy lungs. Now, as a leader of the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Centre at SicKKids Hospital, she created a multidisciplinary program involving genetic statisticians, stem cell biologists, clinical researchers and epithelial cell biologists to advance novel therapies for lung disease in CF called CFIT (The Program in Individualized CF Therapy). The gem of this program is a biobank comprised of airway samples from more than 155 donors (with or without pre-existing disease) with links to individual whole genome sequence and clinical data. The program involves the training of highly qualified personnel through national and international workshops, studentships and postdoctoral fellowships.

Faculty Appointments

Cross appointed to the Department of Biochemistry