Facility Details

First of its kind in Canada, PACB is a non-for-profit facility providing researchers worldwide with standardized, high-quality primary airway cells from normal and a large variety of airway diseased donors.


Highly differentiated primary epithelial cells are essential for studies of airway physiology/pathophysiology, cell biology, inflammation, mucosal immunity, and for translational research to develop new therapeutics. While cell lines are not representative of genetic variation and fail to differentiate into the various cell types found in vivo such as ciliated and goblet cells. Therefore, primary cells are considered as “the gold standard” when testing hypotheses regarding disease pathogenesis and preclinical development of new therapeutics.
The reduced accessibility to primary human bronchial epithelial cells (pHBE) resulting from high cost and low variability discourages investigators, which has a negative impact on the progress of basic research and drug development, while there is a critical need for drugs for CF patients in particular.
The cells distributed by PACB, isolated from a large variety of donors with different genetic backgrounds, are essential for improving our understanding of CF and other respiratory diseases and for translational research to develop new therapeutic agents.

The PACB is certified by the UBC
Office of Biobank Education and Research Biobank Certification Program.