Smoking Machine

Dr. Leslie Sutherland (photo supplied by AMRIC)

By Stew Kernan

You can’t smoke on the grounds of Health Sciences North, but a robot is lighting up in the name of science.

The research is being done by the Advanced Medical Research Institute of Canada and uses a smoking machine.

Researcher Dr. Leslie Sutherland says she’s studying how exposure to cigarette and cannabis smoke affects healthy lung cells at the molecular level.

Dr. Sutherland Sutherland says her research could help physicians determine whether medical marijuana would be an effective treatment option for some patients.

AMRIC is the only non-commercial research institute in the world to have this particular model of smoking machine.