Unique in the world
The Equine Asthma Research Laboratory has been established over 20 years ago by Dr. Jean-Pierre Lavoie in order to elucidate the mechanisms leading to asthma and especially to improve the treatment of this incurable disease. This unique platform support the completion of various and complex studies. For example, the research projects can focus on the effects of treatments on genic expression of a specific cellular population, on the vascularization modifications occurring in the bronchi in asthma or on the impacts of different feeding regimen on the lung function of asthmatic horses.
The unique expertise of the Equine Asthma Research Laboratory is nationally and internationally which allows numerous collaborations with Canadian, American, European and Brazilian researchers.
Grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), subventions from the equine and pharmaceutic industries and private donations allow Dr. Lavoie’s research laboratory to operate.
Horses
Severe equine asthma is a debilitating and incurable disease, often difficult to manage by horse owners. The laboratory keeps a herd of donated asthmatic horses, allowing us to assess the efficacy of treatments. Our expertise and infrastructures insure that our horses receive the best medical care available.
Physical infrastructure
Dr. Lavoie and his team works in two large, modern laboratories and has open access to adjacent tissue culture facilities. These laboratories are located at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (FMV) of the University of Montreal (Canada). The equine lung function laboratory is located at the research farm of the FMV, which has the capacity to house 38 horses. Additional specialized animal procedures are also performed at the Equine Veterinary Teaching Hospital of the FMV, which is equipped with state-of-the-art diagnostic and imaging facilities.
Specialized facilities and equipment
Dr. Lavoie was awarded a grant from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation in 2012 to acquire novel technologies (including high definition videoendoscopy, endobronchial ultrasonography, impulse oscillometry, whole slide stereology). This research platform is mainly used to perform translational studies which allow the transposition of the results obtained in the equine species towards human health.
Equine Tissue Bank
The Equine Tissue Bank was founded in 2008 by Dr. Lavoie in order for research all around the world to have access to several samples to conduct research on asthma. Therefore, the laboratory has over 3 000 samples from 150 well-characterized horses (healthy and asthmatic horses), which allowed the publication of several collaborative research papers. The development of the bank was made possible by the support of The Respiratory Health Network of the FRQS, Dr. Eric Rousseau (Université de Sherbrooke), Yvan Fortier and Josiane Lefebvre-Lavoie.
Technical Support
Animal and laboratory technicians provide training and assistance with the experiments in the lab and with horses. A full-time statistician at the FMV assists with data processing and analysis.