Syphilis is on the rise worldwide and there is an urgent need for reliable and rapid screening, particularly for people who live in areas where access to health care is limited. An international research team, led by scientists at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) in Montreal, has demonstrated that rapid and point-of-care tests (POC) for syphilis are as accurate as conventional laboratory tests. The findings, which were published in PLoS ONE, call for a major change in approach to syphilis testing and recommend replacing first-line laboratory tests with POC tests globally, especially in resource-limited settings.
McGill University researchers are developing low-cost and high-performance electric engines for the next generation of electric vehicles, in collaboration with industrial partners Linamar, TM4, and Infolytica. They will be able to take advantage of the recent development of batteries with high energy densities to create optimal electric drivetrains for on-road electric cars. The drivetrain is the group of components in a motor vehicle that uses the energy stored in the battery to generate mechanical power and deliver it to the road surface.
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Published on: 27 Feb 2013
Prof. Derek Gray, of the Department of Chemistry, and Prof. In-Ho Jung, of the Department of Mining and Materials Engineering, will each receive a Synergy Award for Innovation. These awards were launched by NSERC in 1995 to recognize partnerships between universities and industry in natural sciences and engineering research and development. Since their inception, the awards have honoured the most outstanding achievements of university-industry collaboration in the natural sciences and engineering. Each winner receives a $200,000 research grant.
“The Synergy Awards for Innovation recognize outstanding achievements that have resulted from partnerships between university researchers and industry,” says Suzanne Fortier, President of NSERC. “These awards honour collaboration as the foundation of achievement and highlight Canadian innovations.
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Published on: 27 Feb 2013
While short-term weather is notoriously volatile, climate is thought to represent a kind of average weather pattern over a long period of time. This dichotomy provides the analytical framework for scientific thinking about atmospheric variability, including climate change.
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Published on: 26 Feb 2013
Over the past three years, McGill University’s horticultural research station on the Macdonald campus has been transformed into a market garden, supplying over 40,000 kilograms of produce to the University’s Food and Dining Services, to be used in residences and dining halls across the University’s two campuses.
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Published on: 25 Feb 2013
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Published on: 21 Feb 2013
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Published on: 20 Feb 2013
Diagnosed in toddlers, X-linked hypophosphatemia (XLH) is the most common form of heritable rickets, in which soft bones bend and deform, and tooth abscesses develop because infections penetrate soft teeth that are not properly calcified. Researchers at McGill University and the Federal University of Sao Paulo have identified that osteopontin, a major bone and tooth substrate protein, plays a role in XLH. Their discovery may pave the way to effectively treating this rare disease.
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Published on: 20 Feb 2013
A study of eye movements in schizophrenia patients provides new evidence of impaired reading fluency in individuals with the mental illness.
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Published on: 18 Feb 2013
Injuries that result in chronic pain, such as limb injuries, and those unrelated to the brain are associated with epigenetic changes in the brain which persist months after the injury, according to researchers at McGill University. Epigenetics explores how the environment – including diet, exposure to contaminants and social conditions such as poverty – can have a long-term impact on the activity of our genes.
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Published on: 14 Feb 2013
A new report, launched today by the World Policy Analysis Centre, contains never-before-available comparative data on laws and public policies in 191 countries covering poverty, discrimination, education, health, child labour, child marriage and parental care. Changing Children’s Chances reveals how millions of children across the world face conditions that limit their opportunities to thrive and reach their full potential.
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Published on: 13 Feb 2013
Close to one hundred and fifty professors, students and members of Montreal’s aerospace community were present last week, at the McGill Faculty Club, to celebrate the official announcement of six major collaborative projects in the aerospace field between McGill University and École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS).
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Published on: 12 Feb 2013
While women have gained ground, accounting for 31.2% of senior leadership roles in Montreal, visible minorities remain more markedly underrepresented in these ranks. In spite of accounting for 22.5% of the population, only 5.9% of senior leaders were visible minorities according to a study led by researchers from McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management and Ryerson University’s Diversity Institute.
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Published on: 8 Feb 2013
The danger that icebergs represent to both shipping and to the underwater cables that traverse the ocean floors is very real. It’s tricky for satellites to identify icebergs, and almost impossible to accurately predict the level of risk they present. Drifting clouds can make it difficult to see the movements of sea ice as well as the underwater shape of the icebergs that determines their movement and whether they are a threat. This is why ships moving off Newfoundland’s Grand Banks and the coast of Labrador are asked to report their position and ice observation to Ice St. John’s every six hours.
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Published on: 8 Feb 2013
The results of the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, point to the first known cause of aortic stenosis and to a potential treatment to prevent this disease. “We found that an unusual type of cholesterol called Lipoprotein (a) or Lp(a) – that is not normally screened for in current clinical practice – appears to be a cause of aortic valve disease,” says Dr. George Thanassoulis, one of the co-lead authors of the study, who is also director of preventive and genomic cardiology at the MUHC and an Assistant Professor in Medicine at McGill University. “High levels of this type of cholesterol are predicted primarily by an individual’s genetic make-up with only modest influence from lifestyle or other factors.”
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Published on: 7 Feb 2013
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