medicine

Merck Canada announced yesterday the allocation of a total of $16 million in grants to Quebec’s four faculties of medicine. McGill, along with Université de Montréal, Université de Sherbrooke and Université Laval will each receive $4 M to support health research with a translational component conducted in areas of unmet medical need. The announcement was made in Quebec City at the BioContact Quebec Biopharmaceutical Partnership Symposium, in the presence of Dr. Thomas R. Cannell, President and Managing Director, Merck Canada Inc., and of Pierre Duchesne, Minister of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology.

Researchers at McGill University have found that sodium – the main chemical component in table salt – is a unique “on/off” switch for a major neurotransmitter receptor in the brain. This receptor, known as the kainate receptor, is fundamental for normal brain function and is implicated in numerous diseases, such as epilepsy and neuropathic pain.

A new network that is bringing together expertise from universities, government and industry is implementing a new vision for training the next generation of medical physicists. Ultrasounds, X-rays, MRIs and nuclear medicine are only a few examples of the essential contributions of medical physicists. The field of medical physics applies the principles of physics to medicine, from diagnosis to treatment, and seeks to quickly transform scientific discovery into clinical applications. Medical physicists are also clinical health care professionals providing service in fields such as radiation therapy, medical imaging, nuclear medicine or radiation protection, to name a few.

Recent technological developments in genomics have revealed a large number of genetic influences on common complex diseases, such as diabetes, asthma, cancer or schizophrenia. However, discovering a genetic variant predisposing to a disease is only a first step. To apply this knowledge towards prevention or cure, including tailoring treatment to the patient’s genetic profile –also known as personalized medicine – we need to know how this genetic variant affects health.

Researchers at McGill University have discovered a new way to join materials together using ultrasound. Ultrasound – sound so high it cannot be heard – is normally used to smash particles apart in water. In a recent study, the team of researchers, led by McGill professor Jake Barralet, from the faculties of Dentistry and Medicine, found that if particles were coated with phosphate, they could instead bond together into strong agglomerates, about the size of grains of sand. Their results are published in the journal Advanced Materials.

Only 11% of drugs that enter clinical trials in humans are ultimately found safe and effective enough to receive regulatory approval.

TELUS Health and McGill University have entered into a three-year, million dollar partnership to create a learning environment and conduct research on how best to use technology to improve health and healthcare delivery for Canadians. This joint partnership with McGill is the second for TELUS Health, demonstrating once again that industry and academic communities can collaborate to produce independent, evidence-based research, in order to help address challenges that the Canadian healthcare system is facing.

This year, McGill’s Mini-Med series takes an in-depth look at acute care, including intensive care, emergency rooms and trauma. The series of six talks runs from October 17 to November 21, 2012. The McGill Mini-Med School – which offers to the public a series of conferences by leading McGill experts – premiered in the fall of 2001, the first such program in Canada.

McGill researchers have identified a small region in the genome that conclusively plays a role in the development of psychiatric disease and obesity. The key lies in the genomic deletion of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, a nervous system growth factor that plays a critical role in brain development.

Early life experience results in a broad change in the way our DNA is “epigenetically” chemically marked in the brain by a coat of small chemicals called methyl groups, according to researchers at McGill University. A group of researchers led by Prof. Moshe Szyf, a professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in the Faculty of Medicine, and research scientists at the Douglas Institute have discovered a remarkable similarity in the way the DNA in human brains and the DNA in animal brains respond to early life adversity. The finding suggests an evolutionary conserved mechanism of response to early life adversity affecting a large number of genes in the genome.