McGill in 'Nature'…

Three papers co-authored by McGill University researchers appear in the March 30 issue of the prestigious journal Nature. From findings on brain growth rates and intelligence to tumour metastasis to yet another signpost on the map of the human genome, the work of McGill's researchers is again making headlines.

McGill professor Alan Evans, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), and Jason Lerch of the MNI provided analysis for the National Institutes of Health study that monitored the brains of 307 children and teens and showed that intelligence is tied to growth patterns in the brain.

Nature article: Intellectual ability and cortical development in children and adolescents

McGill's Faculty of Dentistry professor Svetlana Komarova co-authored an article identifying a molecule critical to the ability of tumours to spread into bone. The finding by a team of international researchers offers the promise of a therapeutic approach to reduce the extent of bone metastases — and ease pain in cancer patients.

Nature article: Regulation of cancer cell migration and bone metastasis by RANKL

Ken Dewar, professor of Human Genetics, Faculty of Medicine at McGill, co-authored an article on sequencing the human genome and chromosome 15.

Nature article: Analysis of the DNA sequence and duplication history of human chromosome 15