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MUHC's 'Dr. House' discovers new genetic disease and the gene responsible for it

A team from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre led by Dr. Donald Vinh, the RI's so-called "Dr. House" because of his research into rare diseases, has discovered a new human disease and the gene responsible for it, paving the way for the proper diagnosis of patients globally and the development of new therapies.

7 Dec 2018

Newly developed molecules may provide more reliable relief for people with autoimmune diseases

Living with an autoimmune disease can feel like an insider is attacking your body. An estimated 24 million people in the United States are affected by autoimmune diseases, a group of diseases in which a person's immune system attacks part of the person's own body.

7 Dec 2018

Fractals can help describe how cancer spreads in the body and the right tools to stop it

What can seashells, lightning and the coastline of Britain teach us about new drugs for cancer?

7 Dec 2018

New way of controlling HIV latency to completely eradicate the virus

A new study suggests that a genetic switch that causes latent HIV inside cells to begin to replicate can be manipulated to completely eradicate the virus from the human body. Cells harboring latent HIV are "invisible" to the natural defenses of the immune system.

7 Dec 2018

Earliest strain of plague bacteria found in neolithic Swedish mass grave

Researchers have unearthed a strain of plague bacteria Yersinia pestis, in a woman who was buried in Sweden during the stone ages.

6 Dec 2018

Discovery of gene that is calorie-burning and reduces fat storage

Australian researchers have found a gene which when removed could allow a person to eat as much as they want but not get fat. The study results were published in the latest issue of the journal European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Reports.

6 Dec 2018

Researchers are developing blood test to diagnose or predict Alzheimer's disease

Today, the only way to definitively diagnose Alzheimer's disease in life is through brain scans and tests of cerebrospinal fluid that must be collected via lumbar puncture. Though cumbersome and expensive, such tests provide the most accurate diagnoses for patients.

6 Dec 2018

Hazelnuts improve micronutrient levels in older adults

Older adults who added hazelnuts to their diet for a few months significantly improved their levels of two key micronutrients, new research at Oregon State University indicates.

6 Dec 2018

Lymph node ratio could predict survival in patients with oral cavity cancer

Five years after diagnosis, only 40 percent of patients with locally-advanced oral cavity cancer will still be alive. The question is who is likely to live and who is likely to die? The answer to this question could not only help patients better predict the course of their disease, but could help doctors choose the most appropriate post-surgical treatments - patients at highest risk could receive the most aggressive combinations of radiation and chemotherapy.

6 Dec 2018

Study explores why older people read more slowly

One of the most obvious changes that comes with aging is that people start doing things more slowly. Numerous studies have shown that aging also affects language processing.

6 Dec 2018

Breast cancer treatment more effective when determined by tumor cell count

Research published today shows that circulating tumor cell count may provide an effective indicator of appropriate treatment choice for metastatic breast cancer.

6 Dec 2018

Researchers aim to demystify bladder immunity

We know that the bladder is a poorly understood organ, critical for storing metabolic waste. What we don’t know is how this unique environment impacts bladder immunity to common diseases such as urinary tract infections and bladder cancer.

6 Dec 2018

New EU-funded project provides insight into how the brain develops

The human brain is comprised of billions of different types of cells. These cells are then organized into sophisticated networks, each of which determines a specific function of the brain. But how do the neurons, or nerve cells that form these networks, find the right network? And what happens when they don’t?

6 Dec 2018

Boosting our defenses to fight Klebsiella infections

Although a relatively common infection, some bacteria that causes pneumonia can be particularly deadly. As a case in point, take Klebsiella pneumoniae, which has been included on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) list of infections that desperately need new treatments.

6 Dec 2018

Study reveals why some children are susceptible to the effects of maltreatment

People who experience childhood maltreatment frequently have perturbations in their brain architecture, regardless of whether they develop psychiatric symptoms, but a study in Biological Psychiatry found additional alterations in people who don't develop symptoms.

6 Dec 2018

UCR postdoctoral researcher wins prestigious NIH fellowship to study neural crest cells

Rebekah Charney, a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Medicine at the University of California, Riverside, has been awarded the prestigious Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research of the National Institutes of Health.

6 Dec 2018

Protecting powerhouse of cells could provide better way to treat acute kidney injury

For the first time, scientists have described the body's natural mechanism for temporarily protecting the powerhouses of kidney cells when injury or disease means they aren't getting enough blood or oxygen.

6 Dec 2018

New immuno-assay can detect small molecules with 50-fold greater sensitivity

As medical science has come to understand that the human body is controlled on the molecular level by various proteins, hormones, drugs, and other substances, technologies have developed to detect levels of these molecules in order to monitor health and diagnose disease.

6 Dec 2018

Mapping brain microglia

Microglia are known to be important to brain function. The immune cells have been found to protect the brain from injury and infection and are critical during brain development, helping circuits wire properly. They also seem to play a role in disease -- showing up, for example, around brain plaques in people with Alzheimer's.

6 Dec 2018

Study reveals how the absence of Dna2 enzyme affects chromosome instability

Cells have in place a number of mechanisms to protect the integrity of the genome, including processes that repair mistakes that may occur during DNA replication.

6 Dec 2018