Nicole Brunton

Nicole Brunton is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Respiratory Therapy at the College of Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Manitoba. Her research focuses on improving prognosis and health-related quality of life in individuals with chronic respiratory diseases through integrative systems physiology and causal inference methods.

Research Interests: Dr. Brunton's work spans respiratory physiology, exercise physiology, epidemiology, and rehabilitation. She investigates how chronic respiratory diseases develop and progress across the lifespan, with a particular interest in early detection of functional impairments using exercise as a physiological stressor. Her current research includes studying cardiopulmonary responses to exercise in adolescents and young adults with a history of vaping, aiming to detect early signs of Vaping Use-Associated Lung Injury (EVALI) through non-invasive means.

Dr. Brunton completed her PhD in Applied Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba in 2024, an MSc in Health and Exercise Science at the University of British Columbia in 2018, and a BSc in Human Kinetics from the same institution in 2013. Her multidisciplinary training enables her to approach chronic disease from both individual and population perspectives.

Advising and Grants: She is currently accepting Master's and PhD students and offers undergraduate research opportunities through the Undergraduate Research Awards program (2025). One student project involves conducting a narrative review on exercise responses in youth with vaping history, including literature search, data extraction, and synthesis for publication.

Labs and Teams: While specific lab names are not mentioned, Dr. Brunton leads research initiatives within the College of Rehabilitation Sciences focused on respiratory function and rehabilitation. Her collaborative background includes working with physician-scientists and healthcare teams in acute care and rural settings, suggesting strong interdisciplinary engagement.