CBC | McGill opens satellite medical faculty in the Outaouais

McGill University pressed ahead with its plans to open a new satellite campus for its Faculty of Medicine in the Outaouais this week, despite challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately 20 medical students attended their first classes at the campus on Monday, while four others attended class virtually.

CTV NEWS | McGill University researchers discover way to fight brain tumours' resistance to therapy

New findings out of McGill University in Montreal have revealed a potential way to overcome aggressive brain tumours' resistance to therapy: by deleting a specific gene. Researchers have long been searching for ways to treat Glioblastomas – the most stubborn type of brain tumour – as they’re well known for their resistance to treatment. A few years back, they were able to confirm the key role a gene called the OSMR gene plays in the process of brain cancer growth.

CTV NEWS | Some dinosaurs were flying before there were birds, new research suggests

Biologists now have a better idea of the origin of birds and the evolution of flight, two iconic events in the history of life on earth, thanks to work by a group of international scientists including a McGill professor. In updating the evolutionary tree, the team’s findings show some dinosaurs could fly before they evolved into birds, and many others were experimenting with powered flight.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL | How does COVID-19 affect the nervous system? Canadian and international scientists want to find out

Canadian and international scientists are joining forces to promote research into how COVID-19 affects the central nervous system, as they strive to understand whether and how the new coronavirus and other respiratory viruses could lead to lasting brain damage.

MONTREAL GAZETTE | Pandemic fatigue is real, but there are ways to deal with it, prof says

The signs of ‘pandemic fatigue’ are out there, from the people who feel exhausted to the ones who have become less diligent about physical distancing and washing their hands. It’s not surprising that people are feeling emotionally taxed after experiencing anxiety and disruption for so long because of COVID-19, says a Montreal professor whose research focuses on emotional regulation in performance and well-being. Pandemic fatigue is real, but there are ways to deal with it, prof says

GLOBE & MAIL | Palliative-care advocate Kappy Flanders helped develop a blueprint for a good death

Petite, fierce and focussed, Kappy Flanders became a warrior for palliative care because she wanted people to understand that dying was a part of living, as important a passage as being born, and something that could not be brushed aside because the thought of it was distasteful or frightening.

After all, as she once told a McGill University interviewer, “everyone is terminal at some point.”

RADIO-CANADA INTERNATIONAL | Environmental activists face high risk of violence and assassination: study

Activists defending their communities and the surrounding environment against development of extractive industries and land grabs for agrarian use face high rates of criminalization, physical violence and murder around the world, according to a study published this month in the journal Global Environmental Change.

CTV NEWS | Loneliness can directly impair immune system, increase risk of death: study

The findings, published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences earlier in June, show how social isolation can negatively affect the health of the brain as well as the immune system.“Social isolation, or a lack of social opportunity, gives rise to a sense of loneliness. Directly or indirectly, this feeling has many wide-ranging consequences for our psychological well-being as well as our physical health, even our longevity,” the study states.