news 2022

Hamilton, ON (July 27, 2022) - Researchers from McMaster University and Queen's University have discovered a gut bacterial 'super-producer' of histamine that can cause pain flare-ups in some patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The culprit is what has now been named Klebsiella aerogenes, the McMaster-Queen's (MQ) strain, identified in up to 25 per cent of gut microbiota samples from patients with IBS.

Sebastian Goodfellow , an assistant professor in the University of Toronto's department of civil and mineral engineering, and his team have partnered with researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) to help detect and diagnose heart arrhythmias. The project, supported by grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, aims to leverage techniques developed by Goodfellow and his colleague in their previous work, which involves using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze seismic data.

Some cells move faster in thicker fluid - think honey versus water, or mucus as opposed to blood - because their ruffled edges sense the viscosity of their environment and adapt to increase their speed. That was one of the surprising findings in a new study published in Nature Physics by researchers from the University of Toronto, Johns Hopkins University and Vanderbilt University.

The risk of infection during pregnancy has always been a concern, but the high rate of illness during the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the potential impact of infection on a developing brain. To better understand the long-term consequences, a new Western University study supported by Western's BrainsCAN, explored the effects of a pregnant person's immune response to a virus or bacteria on an unborn baby's brain development.

A new study co-authored by Western researchers found Ontario adults experienced poor sleep quality during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study, published in Sleep Medicine in March 2022, is part of a larger longitudinal study focusing on chronic disease among Ontario adults during the pandemic.

University of Toronto researchers in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering have grown a small-scale model of a human left heart ventricle in the lab. The bioartificial tissue construct is made with living heart cells and beats strongly enough to pump fluid inside a bioreactor. In the human heart, the left ventricle is the one that pumps freshly oxygenated blood into the aorta, and from there into the rest of the body.

Science, Health & Technology Brett Goldhawk Levels of air pollution well below national and international air quality guidelines are associated with an increased risk of death, according to a new Canada-wide study led by researchers at the University of British Columbia. The study , published today in a Health Effects Institute (HEI) report, provides an in-depth analysis of air pollution levels across Canada and their relationship with mortality.

Researchers are a step closer to understanding how Parkinson's disease develops and progresses thanks to chemical biological tools developed at Simon Fraser University. New research, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, and spearheaded by SFU researchers Matthew Deen and Yanping Zhu, outlines new technology and methods to measure the activity of lysosomal glucocerebrosidase (GCase), an enzyme that is commonly linked to Parkinson's disease.

Nearly half of the people who should be referred quickly to a trauma center would fall under the radar of the triage method used in Quebec The prehospital trauma triage protocol used in Quebec correctly detects only 57% of people who should be transported quickly to a trauma center. And it's mainly the elderly who fall under the radar of this tool, reports a research team from Laval University in a study published by the Journal of Surgical Research .

UdeM medical professor Tarik Möröy and his team have identified a therapeutic target for the treatment of lymphoma. New light is being shed on the mechanisms underlying the malignant transformation of lymphomas, paving the way for a promising therapeutic target, thanks to research conducted by a team led by Université de Montréal professor Tarik Möröy.

Western researchers are part of a team researching whether a friction-powered sensor implanted as part of an artificial knee replacement could lengthen the life of the knee. (Debora Van Brenk, Western Communications) Knees are among our hardest-working joints. They help us walk, pivot, jump and climb stairs.

Essential family caregivers suffered "collective trauma" due to COVID-19 lockdowns that hampered their ability to see and care for loved ones in long-term care settings, new research co-authored by the University of Toronto's Charlene Chu suggests.

A transformative experience working with very sick children changed Paul Bucci's mind about how robots used in human therapy should be designed. Bucci, a doctoral candidate in UBC's department of computer science, researches how robots can be used in therapy to help comfort humans, like PARO, a cute seal pup robot that wiggles and blinks and is used in dementia wards for companionship.

COVID-19 infections are once again on the rise as our immune systems struggle to combat new variants. That's according to a University of Toronto study that found the antibodies generated by people who were vaccinated and/or recovered from COVID-19 prior to 2022 failed to neutralize the variants circulating today.

Science, Health & Technology Brett Goldhawk Researchers at UBC's School of Biomedical Engineering have discovered that an existing cancer drug could have potential as a treatment for muscular dystrophy. The researchers found that the drug - known as a colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) inhibitor - helped slow the progress of Duchenne muscular dystrophy in mice by increasing the resiliency of muscle fibres.

A new study is the first to examine the connection between socioeconomic status and opioid incidents in Canada. The study reveals a connection between poverty and opioid-related hospitalization, emergency department visits and deaths in Canada. From 2000 to 2017, Canada's poorest residents were 3.8 times more likely to die of opioid-related causes than Canada's richest residents.

Simon Fraser researchers are studying how a combination of genetics and brain MRIs may be used to predict the chances of developing Alzheimer's disease in the future. In a newly published study, researchers from SFU-s Functional and Anatomical Imaging & Shape Analysis Lab (FAISAL) identified distinct properties of brain MRIs and genetics that impact the prediction of Dementia of Alzheimer's Type, or DAT, for patients at various stages of the disease, then developed a biomarker that can help predict future conversion to DAT.

By having study participants inhale polarized xenon gas while inside the MRI, the researchers see in real-time the function of the 300'500 million tiny alveolar sacs, which are responsible for delivering oxygen to the blood. (Supplied photo/Paulina Wyszkiewicz) Many who experience what is now called 'long-COVID' report feeling brain fog, breathless, fatigued and limited in doing everyday things, often lasting weeks and months post-infection.

Science, Health & Technology Brett Goldhawk Pregnant people of other minoritized racial identities also experience more pressure from providers Black people in the U.S. are twice as likely as white people to be coerced into procedures during perinatal and birth care, and to undergo them without their explicit consent, according to a new study by researchers at UBC's Birth Place Lab and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).

Even if the evidence of the effectiveness of cannabis is still very scarce, Quebecers are self-prescribing products from this plant for health problems ranging from pain to shyness Anxiety, depression, insomnia, shyness, migraines, muscle spasms, pain, loss of appetite, loss of libido. These are some of the health problems for which Quebecers self-prescribe cannabis, even though no reliable scientific study has yet demonstrated its effectiveness for these uses.