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Emilia Lim, PhD

Emilia Lim, PhD

Principal Investigator

Assistant Professor

Dr. Emilia Lim is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the University of British Columbia, and an Investigator at the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging.

She obtained her BSc in Bioinformatics at the University of Alberta, where she completed her thesis on the Human Metabolome Project with Dr. David Wishart. She then pursued her PhD in Bioinformatics under the mentorship of Dr. Marco Marra at UBC and the BC Cancer Genome Sciences Centre, working on epigenomic and transcriptomic biomarker discovery for treatment-refractory hematological and pediatric cancers. Most recently, she completed her postdoctoral training with Dr. Charles Swanton at the Francis Crick Institute and University College London, studying chromosomal instability and how it shapes lung cancer evolution.

Her interest in lung cancer in never-smokers led her to develop a framework for studying environmental impact on cancer initiation, through which she discovered that air pollution triggers lung cancer initiation by promoting clonal expansion of cells harbouring oncogenic mutations that accumulate with aging. Her lab performs multi-omic investigations of how environmental pollutants co-opt molecular mechanisms to shape tissue landscapes into diseased states, with a view towards molecular disease prevention and revealing targets for screening and intervention.

Selected 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. 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

  3. Gene expression signatures of shortened-telomere-associated fibrotic interstitial lung disease

    Naso JR , Sosa C , Schefter LE , Petersen MJ , Nikaido-Landry T , Lim E , Ferrer A , Patnaik MM , Scott JP , Halling KC , Roden AC

    Human Pathology · 2026

    UBC MAPCore UBC MAPCore
    DOI

  4. Nasal budesonide mitigates air pollution effects in adults with allergic rhinitis: A randomized trial

    Halbe E , Rider CF , Yuen ACY , Johal P , Hashimoto A , MacIsaac JL , Dever K , Schwartz C , Lau KSK , Lim EL , Afshar T , Jude MS , Konwar C , Kobor MS , Carlsten C

    Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology · 2026

    Air Pollution Exposure Laboratory Air Pollution Exposure Laboratory
    DOI

  5. Rethinking the microenvironment's role in chemical-induced malignancy

    Bisson WH , Currie RA , Lim EL , Mlynarczyk C , Tokar EJ , Colacci A , Colacino JA

    Toxicological Sciences · 2026

    DOI

  6. 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

  7. Characterizing the evolutionary dynamics of cancer proliferation in single-cell clones with SPRINTER

    Lucas O , Ward S , Zaidi R , Bunkum A , Frankell AM , Moore DA , Hill MS , Liu WK , Marinelli D , Lim EL , Hessey S , Naceur-Lombardelli C , Rowan A , Purewal-Mann SK , Zhai H , Dietzen M , Ding B , Royle G , Aparicio S , McGranahan N , Jamal-Hanjani M , Kanu N , Swanton C , Zaccaria S

    Nature Genetics · 2025

    The Francis Crick Institute The Francis Crick Institute
    DOI

  8. DNA methylation cooperates with genomic alterations during non-small cell lung cancer evolution

    Gimeno-Valiente F , Castignani C , Cadieux EL , Mensah NE , Liu X , Chen K , Chervova O , Karasaki T , Weeden CE , Richard C , Lai S , Martínez-Ruiz C , Lim EL , Frankell AM , Watkins TBK , Stavrou G , Usaite I , Lu WT , Marinelli D , Saghafinia S , Wilson GA , Dhami P , Vaikkinen H , Steif J , Veeriah S , Hynds RE , Hirst M , Hiley C , Feber A , Deniz Ö , Jamal-Hanjani M , McGranahan N , Beck S , Demeulemeester J , Tanić M , Swanton C , Van Loo P , Kanu N

    Nature Genetics · 2025

    The Francis Crick Institute The Francis Crick Institute
    DOI

  9. The Nature and Nurture of Carcinogenesis

    Lim EL , DeGregori J

    Cancer Discovery · 2025

    University of Colorado Anschutz University of Colorado Anschutz
    DOI

  10. 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

  11. 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

  12. Pervasive chromosomal instability and karyotype order in tumour evolution

    Watkins TBK* , Lim EL* , Petkovic M , Elizalde S , Birkbak NJ , Wilson GA , Moore DA , Grönroos E , Rowan A , Dewhurst SM , Demeulemeester J , Dentro SC , Horswell S , Au L , Haase K , Escudero M , Rosenthal R , Al Bakir M , Xu H , Litchfield K , Lu WT , Mourikis TP , Dietzen M , Spain L , Cresswell GD , Biswas D , Lamy P , Nordentoft I , Harbst K , Castro-Giner F , Yates LR , Caramia F , Jaulin F , Vicier C , Tomlinson IPM , Brastianos PK , Cho RJ , Bastian BC , Dyrskjøt L , Jönsson GB , Savas P , Loi S , Campbell PJ , Andre F , Luscombe NM , Steeghs N , Tjan-Heijnen VCG , Szallasi Z , Turajlic S , Jamal-Hanjani M , Van Loo P , Bakhoum SF , Schwarz RF , McGranahan N , Swanton C

    Nature · 2020

    The Francis Crick Institute The Francis Crick Institute
    DOI

  13. MicroRNA Expression-Based Model Indicates Event-Free Survival in Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia

    Lim EL , Trinh DL , Ries RE , Wang J , Gerbing RB , Ma Y , Topham J , Hughes M , Pleasance E , Mungall AJ , Moore R , Zhao Y , Aplenc R , Sung L , Kolb EA , Gamis A , Smith M , Gerhard DS , Alonzo TA , Meshinchi S , Marra MA

    Journal of Clinical Oncology · 2017

    Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre
    DOI

  14. Comprehensive miRNA sequence analysis reveals survival differences in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients

    Lim EL , Trinh DL , Scott DW , Chu A , Krzywinski M , Zhao Y , Robertson AG , Mungall AJ , Schein J , Boyle M , Mottok A , Ennishi D , Johnson NA , Steidl C , Connors JM , Morin RD , Gascoyne RD , Marra MA

    Genome Biology · 2015

    Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre
    DOI

  15. T3DB: a comprehensively annotated database of common toxins and their targets

    Lim E , Pon A , Djoumbou Y , Knox C , Shrivastava S , Guo AC , Neveu V , Wishart DS

    Nucleic Acids Research · 2009

    DOI