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• The DREAM Study

The DREAM Study, Canada

Objective: There are bugs in our lungs, called microbes, including those that cause disease and those that are living in lung but not causing disease. These bugs may have come from the air in our homes. In this study, researchers propose to test this idea by testing the air in homes of those with common airway diseases (like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD]) to see what bugs exist therein, and to also test the lungs, nasal passages and stool samples of those living in those homes, to see what bugs are similar between the microenvironments. Then, we will see if those bugs that are common to the microenvironments are those that seem to be most related to clinical features like lung function, lung inflammation, and “genomic” changes in the lung (this means changes in the way our genes are chemically modified and produce the proteins they are programmed to produce). If there is such a relationship, we will use these results to design interventions, such as the use of air purifiers, that may alter the relationship between the outside (air) and inner (lung) environment and then thereafter test these interventions to see if they can beneficial to patients.