Leila Mostaço-Guidolin is an expert in using optical microscopy to characterize the fundamental processes underpinning tissue remodelling and cellular differentiation in health and disease. During her PhD at the University of Manitoba, she collaborated closely with the National Research Council Spectroscopy Group. She was among the first experts in Canada to work with a state-of-the-art nonlinear optical microscope, develop innovative image analysis tools, and assess characteristic changes that occur within arteries during atherosclerotic plaque development.

Aiming to apply these technologies in clinical research, Dr. Mostaço-Guidolin joined the Heart Lung Innovation Centre at St Paul’s Hospital, University of British Columbia (Vancouver). As a post-doctoral fellow, she developed methods to reveal and track changes associated with collagen and elastin deposition in respiratory diseases. Structural changes within airways of asthmatic patients, termed airway remodelling, do not respond to existing asthma medications. Employing biomedical imaging modalities alongside human in vitro models, Dr. Mostaço-Guidolin currently investigates questions related to cellular communication and extracellular matrix repair in abnormal mechano-environments, aiming to find novel therapeutic strategies for chronic fibrotic diseases like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), which remain incurable.