McGill University today announced it has signed agreements with ModernaTX, Inc., a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, to support two innovative research projects in the area of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). LNPs are critical components in mRNA medicines such as vaccines, as they are the primary delivery method of mRNA strands to the target cells.
For most people, the influenza A virus (IAV), commonly known as the flu, is cleared from the body by our own immune system. In some cases, however, the immune response becomes dysregulated and if left uncontrolled, the inflammation caused by our own immune cells can lead to extensive lung tissue damage and enhanced morbidity and mortality.
How can we help our immune system to balance the two main host defense strategies: attacking pathogens (called host resistance) and preserving our own tissue (called disease tolerance)?
Scientists at McGill University have developed a new method to study how seizures arise in the healthy brain. Using laser light guided through ultra-thin optic fibers in the brain of rodents, the researchers “turned on” light-sensitive proteins in selective brain cells and were able to eventually cause seizures through repeated laser stimulation. These findings were published March 27, 2019 in the journal Scientific Reports.
In the wake of cannabis legalization, a team of scientists at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and McGill University have delivered encouraging news for chronic pain sufferers by pinpointing the effective dose of marijuana plant extract cannabidiol (CBD) for safe pain relief without the typical “high” or euphoria produced by the THC. The findings of their study have been published in the journal PAIN.
The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre’s (RI-MUHC) push to treat a rare genetic disease in children – with a higher percentage found in French Canadians – has received $2 million as part of a national genomic contest led by Genome Canada.
Preterm birth is a major global public health problem. Every year, 15 million babies are born prematurely and many will suffer from neurodegenerative disorders, including cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, impaired vision, and behavioural problems.
The funding will be split between separate projects looking into the properties of cannabidiol and a search for a new treatment of an aggressive brain cancer.
Rare hereditary recessive diseases were thought to be expressed in offspring only when both parents carry a mutation in the causal gene, but a new study is changing this paradigm. An international research team led by scientists at the University of Lorraine in France along with McGill University and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) in Canada discovered a new cause of a rare condition known as cblC, that they named “epi-cblC”. They reported it in patients from Europe and the United States.
Research has already shown that women who develop either diabetes or high blood pressure during pregnancy are at risk of getting type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease years later. Now, a new study from a team at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and McGill University shows that the risk of developing those conditions post pregnancy is drastically higher if the women had both diabetes and high blood pressure during pregnancy. The study, published today in the American Journal of Epidemiology, doesn’t end with the mother’s risks.
By Julie Robert
A study conducted at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) suggests screening breast cancer patients for the prolactin receptor could improve the prognosis for patients and may help them avoid unnecessary and invasive treatments. Using a database of 580 women with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), the researchers found that survival was prolonged in patients who expressed the prolactin receptor and that prolactin hormone was able to reduce the aggressive behavior of cancerous cells. It does so by decreasing their ability to divide and form new tumors.
By Julie Robert, McGill University Health Centre
Canadian researchers describe the first outbreak of Cryptosporidium parasite in Nunavik