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The University of British Columbia
Edwin SH Leong Centre for Healthy Aging
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Environmental Oncogenomics

The Lim Lab investigates how environmental pollutants shape the genomics, transcriptomics, and epigenomics of cells to drive age-related disease, using multi-omic approaches in cancer patients and pollution-exposed individuals.

Explore our research Meet the team
H&E-stained lung tissue — anthracotic macrophages scattered through the parenchyma
Single-cell transcriptomes — t-SNE embedding, ten cell types

Illustrative, synthetic cell positions — not real patient data.

Research areas

Origins

Prevention

Aging

Lab members gathered around a table discussing work

The people behind the work

We're a small, collaborative group working across genomics, imaging, and data science to understand how environmental exposures shape cancer risk.

Meet the team

Selected publications

All publications

  1. Clinical and molecular correlates of digitally quantified anthracosis in lung tissue slides: utility of an automated quantitative workflow

    Fung LC , Joseph B , Ofori-Amanfo K , Lo T , Wang P , Trinder M , Barnabas G , Nikaido-Landry T , Durney CH , Tawara A , Ong S , Lam S , Meza R , Myers R , Lockwood WW , McGuire A , Naso JR , Lim EL

    Journal of Pathology: Clinical Research · 2026

    Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre UBC MAPCore UBC MAPCore Terry Fox Research Institute - The Environment and Lung Cancer Terry Fox Research Institute - The Environment and Lung Cancer
    DOI

  2. Woodsmoke and diesel exhaust: Distinct transcriptomic profiles in the human airway epithelium

    Huff RD , Rider CF , Lo T , Hardy KI , El-Bittar N , Ryu MH , Carlsten C , Lim EL

    Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety · 2025

    Air Pollution Exposure Laboratory Air Pollution Exposure Laboratory Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre
    DOI

  3. Lung adenocarcinoma promotion by air pollutants

    Hill W* , Lim EL* , Weeden CE* , Lee C , Augustine M , Chen K , Kuan FC , Marongiu F , Evans EJ , Moore DA , Rodrigues FS , Pich O , Bakker B , Cha H , Myers R , van Maldegem F , Boumelha J , Veeriah S , Rowan A , Naceur-Lombardelli C , Karasaki T , Sivakumar M , De S , Caswell DR , Nagano A , Black JRM , Martínez-Ruiz C , Ryu MH , Huff RD , Li S , Favé MJ , Magness A , Suárez-Bonnet A , Priestnall SL , Lüchtenborg M , Lavelle K , Pethick J , Hardy S , McRonald FE , Lin MH , Troccoli CI , Ghosh M , Miller YE , Merrick DT , Keith RL , Al Bakir M , Bailey C , Hill MS , Saal LH , Chen Y , George AM , Abbosh C , Kanu N , Lee SH , McGranahan N , Berg CD , Sasieni P , Houlston R , Turnbull C , Lam S , Awadalla P , Grönroos E , Downward J , Jacks T , Carlsten C , Malanchi I , Hackshaw A , Litchfield K , DeGregori J , Jamal-Hanjani M , Swanton C

    Nature · 2023

    The Francis Crick Institute The Francis Crick Institute Air Pollution Exposure Laboratory Air Pollution Exposure Laboratory Terry Fox Research Institute - The Environment and Lung Cancer Terry Fox Research Institute - The Environment and Lung Cancer University of Colorado Anschutz University of Colorado Anschutz
    DOI

  4. EGFR Dysregulation and Climate Change: Insights into Pollution-Promoted Lung Cancer

    Nikaido-Landry T , Zhang S , Lim EL

    Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B · 2026

    DOI

  5. The Data Science at the Interface of Air Pollution and Lung Health: Towards Precision Health

    Ofori-Amanfo K , Dustin M , Lim EL

    Annual Review of Biomedical Data Science · 2026

    DOI

News

UBC Faculty of Medicine · August 12, 2026

CIHR Project Grant: A single-cell spatial analysis of the impact of air pollution exposure on molecular pathways in lung cancer

UBC Medicine researchers secured over $39 million in CIHR funding across 42 projects. Dr. Emilia Lim received funding for her project on single-cell spatial analysis of how air pollution exposure affects molecular pathways in lung cancer.

Read the coverage All news
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