Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death in Canada, and air pollution is becoming an increasingly significant risk factor. While we know that environmental pollutants, such as wildfire smoke and traffic-related pollution, contribute to the development of lung cancer, we still don’t fully understand how or why they do so.
“Climate change and its impact on human health cannot be ignored. We urgently need to understand how these environmental pollutants drive cancer development to reduce our risk of developing cancer,” says Dr. Emilia Lim, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of British Columbia and the 2025 recipient of the Dr. Victor Ling Terry Fox New Investigator Award. This prestigious award, named after TFRI’s founding president and scientific director, distinguishes the highest-ranked Terry Fox New Investigator of the year.
With $525,000 over the next three years, Dr. Lim is setting out to answer this crucial question: How does air pollution transform healthy lung tissue into cancerous cells? By doing so, she hopes to enable the prevention of pollution-related lung cancer and its recurrence. She initiated this work during her postdoctoral training with Dr. Charles Swanton at the Francis Crick Institute and University College London and is continuing to build on it in her own lab.
Together with her mentors Dr. Stephen Lam, BC Cancer Research Centre, and Dr. Christopher Carlsten, University of British Columbia, Dr. Lim’s team will begin by studying large-scale data from individuals exposed to air pollution, looking for changes that occur with accelerated aging and pollution exposure. This will reveal molecular markers for cancer, enabling earlier detection and the identification of high-risk groups that can be prioritized for cancer screening.
Next, they will examine individual lung cells to answer a number of questions. For example: How do carbon particles from pollution affect cellular function? How do lung samples from cancer patients respond to pollutants like diesel exhaust and wood smoke, and the effects of anti-inflammatory drugs? Their hope is for findings that will help inform strategies to prevent cellular changes linked to pollution exposure.
Finally, they will create a comprehensive database to catalogue the molecular changes caused by pollution exposure. This database will not only serve as a knowledge hub, but will also facilitate collaboration among researchers, accelerating discoveries in the field.
In addition to this work, Dr, Lim will strengthen the existing research network built through the Terry Fox New Frontiers Program Project Grant: The Environment and Lung Cancer, led by Drs. Stephen Lam and William Lockwood at BC Cancer and the University of British Columbia.
“I feel privileged and excited to receive this award and be part of this pan-Canadian research network,” says Dr. Lim. “By strengthening collaborations across the country, we hope to find ways to prevent cancer not only in Canada but worldwide.”