Padmaja Subbarao

Co-Lead, Precision Child Health

Staff Respirologist, Division of Respiratory Medicine

Senior Scientist, Translational Medicine, Subbarao Lab

Director, CHILD Cohort study

Dr. Padmaja Subbarao is a Clinician-Scientist in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine, specializing clinically in severe asthma. Trained in both Epidemiology and infant and preschool lung function, she holds appointments at the University of Toronto in the Departments of Paediatrics, Physiology and in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

Research

Dr. Subbarao’s research program focuses on disentangling preschool wheeze heterogeneity to precisely predict who will develop each type of asthma, monitor its progression and discover the risk factors, exposures and underlying biology associated with each asthma subtype. She is the Director of the CHILD cohort study, one of the largest, most intensively characterized asthma birth cohorts in the world. This world-leading study enabled the discovery of the importance of the gut microbiome for the protection against asthma (cited more than 500 times).

She also established the first infant lung function laboratory in Canada and her early work on the novel multiple breath washout (MBW) lung test helped pave the way for its acceptance by the Federal Drug Agency as an objective outcome measure for clinical trials in Cystic Fibrosis (CF). Her research in early life lung function and risk factors in asthma have enabled the earlier, precise prediction of asthma and monitoring of its progression, thus advancing the diagnosis and treatment of children with asthma.

Education and experience

• 1988–1990: B.Sc., Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
• 1990–1994: MD, Doctor of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• 2000–2002: M.Sc. Epid., Masters of Science in Clinical Health Sciences, Health Research Methodology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
• 1994–1997: Paediatric Residency, Faculty of Medicine, CHEO, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
• 1997–1999: Respiratory Medicine Fellow, Faculty of Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• 1998–1999: Associate Chief Respiratory Medicine Fellow, Faculty of Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• 2000–2003: Canadian Lung Association Research Fellowship, Asthma Research Fellowship, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
• 2002–2004: Canadian Institutes of Health Research Fellowship, Infant Pulmonary Function Training Fellowship, Institutes of Child Health, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, England, UK.

Achievements

• 2013: Breathe New Life Award, Ontario Thoracic Society, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
  Award for highest ranking in National Grant Review competition.
• 2018: Paul Mann Lectureship, University of Alberta, Faculty of Medicine, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

1. Lu Z, Foong RE, Kowalik K, Moraes TJ, Boyce A, Dubeau A, Balkovec S, Gustafsson PM, Becker AB, Mandhane PJ, Turvey SE, Lou W, Ratjen F, Sears M, Subbarao P. Ventilation inhomogeneity in infants with recurrent wheezing. Thorax. 2018 Jun 15. 
2. Kowalik K, Dai R, Safavi S, Reyna ME, Lou W, Lepine C, McDonald E, Schaap MJ, Brydges MG, Dubeau A, Boutis K, Narang I, Eiwegger T, Moraes TJ, Ratjen F, Subbarao P.  Persistent ventilation inhomogeneity after an acute exacerbation in preschool children with recurrent wheezing.  Ped All Immunol 2020 (in press). 
3. Subbarao P, Stanojevic S, Brown M, Jensen R, Rosenfeld M, Davis S, Brumback L, Gustafsson P, Ratjen F.  Lung clearance index as an outcome measure for clinical trials in young children with CF: A pilot study using inhaled hypertonic saline. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2013: 188(4): 456-60.
4. Subbarao P, Anand SS, Becker AB, Befus AD, Brauer M, Brook JR, Denburg JA, HayGlass KT, Kobor MS, et al, Sears MR and the CHILD Study investigators. The Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study: examining the developmental origins of asthma and allergy. Thorax. 2015 Oct;70(10):998-1000.
5. Boutin RCT, Sbihi H, Dsouza M, Malhotra R, Petersen C, Dai D, Sears MR, Moraes TJ, Becker AB, Azad MB, Mandhane PJ, Subbarao P*, Finlay BB*, Turvey SE*. Mining the infant gut microbiota for therapeutic targets against atopic disease. Allergy. 2020 Feb 22. In Press.

See a full list of Padmaja Subbarao's publications