Title: Fibulin-4 exerts a dual role in LTBP-4L–mediated matrix assembly and function
Montreal, September 23, 2019 – According to a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, the biological clock influences immune response efficacy. Indeed, CD8 T cells, which are essential to fight infections and cancers, function very differently according to the time of day. The study was carried out by a team of researchers led by Nicolas Cermakian, PhD, of the Douglas Research Centre, and Nathalie Labrecque, PhD, of the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Research Centre.
McGill University is participating in a new research project titled Tête première (head first), led by the team of neuropsychologist Dr. Louis De Beaumont, a researcher at the CIUSSS du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal research centre and a professor in the Department of Surgery at Université de Montréal. The project will assess the brain’s capacities to sustain blows to the head during a full university football season.
Researchers uncover new protein that plays key role in bacterial infections
Bacterial infections represent a major public health concern, accounting for over 300 million foodborne illnesses and 60% of related fatalities globally. Salmonella alone is responsible for approximately 93.8 million illnesses and 155,000 deaths annually. Combined with the emergence of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella strains, it is critical that researchers improve our understanding of the molecular details governing bacterial infections.
Researchers have long been interested in the question of whether a correlation exists between one’s early-life environment and suicide rates, with studies on the topic dating back to the 1980s. However, these studies have focused on individual countries or on only one or few risk factors. As a result, the lack of any meta-analysis of the data has made it difficult to draw any coherent conclusions.
Amal Seffouh, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Ortega lab, publishes her most recent work about the role of RbgA in the maturation of the 50S ribosomal subunit.
Depression can be associated with behaviours such as social avoidance, that is, the refusal to interact with others for fear of being judged or criticized. Physicians and other mental health workers have noted that patients with depressive disorders exhibit cognitive symptoms, especially with regard to memory.
Marc Miller, Member of Parliament (Ville-Marie–Le Sud-Ouest–Île-des-Sœurs, Quebec) and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, on behalf of the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Health, announced today at McGill an investment of up to $6 million for a scientific task force of top researchers to develop new and improved approaches to cancer treatment and care. The funding will be distributed over four years to the new pan-Canadian program, the Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C) Canada Metastatic Breast Cancer Dream Team.
AI and virtual reality can determine neurosurgeon expertise with 90% accuracy
Machine learning-guided virtual reality simulators can help neurosurgeons develop the skills they need before they step in the operating room, according to a new study.
Variants found in this population may predispose to brain aneurysm
A new study has found that an Inuit population in Canada’s Arctic are genetically distinct from any known group, and certain genetic variants are correlated with brain aneurysm.
Source: Terry Fox Research Institute
What is the best way to starve cancer cells? What role does obesity play in metastatic breast cancer and how does it affect the tumour microenvironment? Might combining a chemotherapeutic agent with a drug now used to treat diabetes be part of an effective therapy for metastatic breast cancer?
Aida Razi’s last PhD thesis chapter now published online in the Nucleic Acids Research journal. This publication features the first cryo-EM structures obtained by the Ortega lab in the Titan Krios microscope at FEMR-McGill.
Read the paper at https://academic.oup.com/nar/advance-article/doi/10.1093/nar/gkz571/5527280?searchresult=1
New research led by McGill’s Goodman Cancer Research Centre improves our understanding of microRNAs
Discovery could provide clues to potential therapies
Rearing its head in infancy, Christianson Syndrome is a rare disorder whose symptoms include intellectual disability, seizures and difficulty standing or walking. Although it is becoming increasingly diagnosed, with little being known about the neural mechanism behind the disease, therapeutic options for patients remain limited.
Dr Natalie Dayan was named Quebec’s first Research Chair in Women’s Heart Health on 18 June 2019!