Even jumping spiders have personalities scientists have discovered. A "shy" individual will not make the same choices as a "bold" individual. This means that some individuals, because of their personality type, will capture more prey than others, and will therefore have a larger effect on local ecosystems.


A new study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry by a team led by Salah El Mestikawy, Ph.D., researcher at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute (CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’île-de-Montréal), professor at McGill University and head of research at CNRS INSERM UPMC in Paris, opens the field to new understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying addiction in humans.
Researchers at McGill have clearly identified, for the first time, the specific parts of the brain involved in decisions that call for delayed gratification.

It takes a surprisingly small cluster of brain cells deep within the cerebellum to learn how to serve a tennis ball, or line up a hockey shot.

Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common cause of physical disability in children. Every year 140 children are diagnosed with cerebral palsy in Quebec.

Researchers from McGill University and its hospital-affiliated research institutes have been awarded $91.5 million in grants in the latest round of funding by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? New research on the brain’s capacity to learn suggests there’s more to it than the adage that “practise makes perfect.” A music-training study by scientists at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital -The Neuro, at McGill University and colleagues in Germany found evidence to distinguish the parts of the brain that account for individual talent from the parts that are activated through training.


Poultry used to be the usual suspect in cases of Salmonella poisoning. Today, however, most outbreaks of the illness come from fruit and vegetables that have become infected when the soil in which they grow is polluted by animal waste or non-potable water. There currently is no method of reducing the growth of Salmonella on such produce.

A Canadian research team at the IRCM in Montréal, led by molecular virologist Éric A. Cohen, PhD, made a significant discovery on how HIV escapes the body’s antiviral responses. The team uncovered how an HIV viral protein known as Vpu tricks the immune system by using its own regulatory process to evade the host’s first line of defence. This breakthrough was published yesterday in the scientific journal PLoS Pathogens and will be presented at the upcoming IAS 2015 conference in Vancouver. The findings pave the way for future HIV prevention or cure strategies.

Today in the journal Nature prominent researchers from Canada, Europe and the U.S. have made a powerful call to major funding agencies, asking them to commit to establishing a global genomic data commons in the cloud that could be easily accessed by authorized researchers worldwide.


As scientists continue to hunt for a material that will make it possible to pack more transistors on a chip, new research from McGill University and Université de Montréal adds to evidence that black phosphorus could emerge as a strong candidate.