Thornton\u2019s project, which she leads collaboratively with the U of A\u2019s Ran Zhao<\/a>, and which builds upon a prior project with Zhao and Queen\u2019s University\u2019s Paul Kubes<\/a>, recently received $250,000<\/a> from the federal government\u2019s New Frontiers in Research Fund <\/a>(NFRF) tied to understanding the makeup of the wildfire smoke that now blankets much of the planet each summer in hopes that more effective medical treatment can be developed. That funding comes on the heels of a prior, $2-million grant from the Canadian Institute of Health Research<\/a> for Thornton\u2019s work with Kubes.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end, what we hope that we\u2019ll have is a clear workflow standard operating procedure, as well as a sort of fingerprint of what wildfire smoke looks like both in terms of chemical and microbial composition,\u201d Thornton said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Inspired by disaster<\/p>\n Thornton and her colleague\u2019s project was conceived three years ago during the 2023 wildfires in Western Canada. It was the most severe fire season in living memory<\/a> for Canada, and it caused the three academics to wonder how dangerous the smoke they were inhaling was.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe know wildfires are bad: clearly there are chemicals and particles \u2026 we are breathing in. But do we know if there\u2019s anything else we\u2019re breathing in?\u201d<\/p>\n As it turns out, there\u2019s a lot more than just ash, soot, and PM2.5\u2014 the ultra fine particulate matter that gets caught in our lungs\u2014in that smoke. According to Thornton, smoke composition from wildfires can include things like fungal spores and microbial agents that haven\u2019t historically existed in aerosol form, meaning there\u2019s no basis for what impacts they might have when inhaled.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d think fire is going to kill everything that\u2019s alive, but \u2026 there\u2019s pretty reasonable scientific evidence that suggests microbes could live. And, what happens is when they\u2019re exposed to these extremes of temperature, they can make spores, whether bacterial or fungal, and those spores can be dispersed and potentially inhaled,\u201d Thornton said.\u00a0<\/p>\n That carries all manner of potential implications<\/a>, from associations with cardiovascular disease<\/a> and stroke<\/a>, to exposure to potentially immune-system-influencing antigens, according to Thornton.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMicrobes carry their own DNA,\u201d Thornton said. \u201cAntibiotic-resistant genes are present in these bugs. We don\u2019t know what those are doing. If they\u2019re carrying antimicrobial resistance and we\u2019re breathing them in, that may have implications for how we treat patients.\u201d<\/p>\n RELATED: How four Edmonton startups are collaborating to fight wildfires<\/a><\/p>\n Another study<\/a>, out of the US, found associations between wildfire incidents and occurrences of respiratory fungal infections.\u00a0<\/p>\n To find those microbes and chemicals, the team uses high-volumetric air samplers to capture wildfire smoke, analyze those samples, and develop microbial communities that can be grown and studied. They\u2019ve also made use of the Government of Canada\u2019s burn lab, located at the Northern Forestry Centre<\/a> in Edmonton, to burn natural components in a controlled setting and measure the outcome.\u00a0<\/p>\n A growing field of study<\/p>\n Thornton\u2019s work is part of a growing field of research<\/a> surrounding wildfires and their implications on human health. At U of A, in the Faculty of Engineering, assistant professor Haoran Yu is studying the ways<\/a> airborne particulates enter indoor spaces and move through the air, as well as the chemical composition of smoke. Further east, the University of Manitoba is preparing to open the AirSAFE Lab<\/a>, a multidisciplinary research centre on the health impacts of wildfire smoke. That centre is slated to open later this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s a welcome effort, because, as Thornton says, the impacts of wildfire smoke are widespread, expensive, and not going away anytime soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re already in a strained healthcare system \u2026 it doesn\u2019t take much to tip things over,\u201d she said. \u201c[Wildfire smoke] has healthcare costs, burdens on the system, increased resources, and we don\u2019t have clear recommendations for what to do or clear guidance for what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n BetaKit\u2019s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF<\/a>, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Christina-Thornton-300x300.webp\" "\\"Christina")
<\/a>Christina Thornton. Image courtesy University of Calgary.<\/p>\n