Our Research on Vaping

Vaping is often marketed as a safer alternative to smoking, but our research reveals a much more complex story. We investigate how e-cigarette vapour affects health across the lifespan – from pregnancy and childhood development through to adult brain, including metabolic, and organ health. Our work combines in-vitro and in-invivo models, using mechanistic biology to uncover the hidden risks of vaping and second- and third-hand exposure.

Key Research Themes

🧬 Development and Pregnancy

  • Maternal exposure matters: We have shown that exposure to e-cigarette vapour during pregnancy alters DNA methylation and gene expression in offspring. These molecular changes affect lung development, immune responses, and brain health, raising long-term risks for respiratory and cognitive disorders.

  • Cognitive and epigenetic impacts in offspring: Even nicotine-free vapour can cause measurable changes in memory and brain chemistry in developing animals.

🏠 Beyond the Smoker: Third-Hand Vapour

  • Vaping indoors doesn’t just affect the person inhaling. We discovered that vapour condenses on surfaces, forming a residue that can be absorbed through the skin.

  • This “third-hand vapour” has been linked to developmental harm in our animal studies and raises serious questions for families with children or pregnant women in vaping households.

🧠 Brain Health

  • Vaping impairs short-term memory and alters key brain proteins, including those linked to dementia and neurodegeneration.

  • These effects are seen even in the absence of nicotine, highlighting that the vapour itself, not just nicotine, can be harmful.

🍔 Vaping and Diet: A Dangerous Combination

  • Our studies show that vaping interacts with obesity and high-fat diets. In mice, e-cigarette vapour alters glucose tolerance, lipid profiles, and inflammatory markers in ways that differ between obese and lean animals.

  • Combined exposures (vaping plus poor diet) can worsen systemic inflammation, brain health, and kidney function.

🫁 Respiratory and Immune Health

  • E-vapour alters lung cytokine expression and systemic immune responses.

  • Even without nicotine, vapour exposure can promote inflammation and change immune balance, contributing to long-term risk of respiratory disease.

Why This Matters

Vaping is not harmless. Our research consistently shows that e-cigarette use has measurable biological effects – from gene expression and metabolism through to brain and organ function. These findings raise concerns about the safety of vaping as a smoking-cessation tool and highlight the risks of passive exposure for children, pregnant women, and people with chronic health conditions.