Medical Research Stories

Medical Research Stories
Read stories about initiatives in medical education taking place at Canada’s 17 Faculties of Medicine.
- U of T Antibody Test Detects Past COVID-19 Infection and Quality of Immune ResponseA blood test designed by researchers at the University of Toronto and Sinai Health’s Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute can accurately detect whether a person was previously infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 — and whether their immune response is functional.
- UBC researchers set sights on coronavirus antibodiesBy University of British Columbia |
A new research project at the University of British Columbia may produce new treatment methods for patients with COVID-19 and help prevent transmission of the deadly virus.
The project, led by two experts in infectious diseases—Dr. Horacio Bach (HB) and Dr. Ted Steiner (TS), professors in UBC’s faculty of medicine—aims to develop antibodies to prevent the novel coronavirus from entering cells in our body.
- U of A researchers work to make COVID-19 recommendations simple and understandableBy GILLIAN RUTHERFORD |
As citizens cope with a barrage of public health information about how to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, University of Alberta researchers are working to make it more accessible and easier to understand.
"All of your functions are impaired in an emergency," said Gillian Harvey, an assistant professor of design studies and a member of the international Design Network for Emergency Management.
- Experts must track mutating COVID-19 to develop effective vaccine: UM studyBy UM TODAY STAFF |Rady Faculty of Health Sciences researchers determined that scientists must track the genetic diversity of COVID-19 in order to develop an effective vaccine. They also determined that testing for the virus may produce false negative results if experts don’t track how it’s changing around the world.
- Vascular development may be at risk in autismBy uOttawa |A Canadian collaboration led by Dr. Baptiste Lacoste has undertaken the first-ever in-depth study of vasculature in the autistic brain. The product of four years of work, a paper published today in Nature Neuroscience lays out several lines of novel evidence that strongly implicate defects in endothelial cells—the lining of blood vessels—in autism.
- Mom and baby share “good bacteria” through breastmilkBy UM TODAY STAFF |
A new study by researchers at the University of Manitoba and the University of British Columbia (UBC) has found that bacteria are shared and possibly transferred from a mother’s milk to her infant’s gut, and that breastfeeding directly at the breast best supports this process.
- Building next generation ‘smart pill’ gut-imaging device with AI sensors for improved cancer detectionBy USASK RESEARCH PROFILE AND IMPACT |A team led by University of Saskatchewan (USask) researcher Dr. Khan Wahid (PhD) has been awarded $250,000 from the federal New Frontiers in Research Fund to create a new pill-sized capsule that uses artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled sensing to diagnose gastrointestinal cancers and bleeding earlier and more precisely than is currently possible.
- Un nouveau traitement révolutionnaire pour remplacer la transplantation cornéenneBy Université de Montréal |Sous la direction de la docteure May Griffith, chercheuse au Centre de recherche de l’Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont et professeure au Département d’ophtalmologie, ce projet multinational paraissant dans la revue Science Advances a permis de trouver une solution efficace et accessible pour traiter les perforations cornéennes sans avoir recours à la transplantation. [available in French only]
- Researchers find more precise way to target tumours with anti-cancer drugsBy ADRIANNA MacPHERSON |
Researchers at the University of Alberta have found a way to deliver anti-cancer drugs with more precision, which could increase the effectiveness of many cancer treatments.
U of A oncologist Frank Wuest altered the surface of nanoparticles, which are well suited to deliver drugs, with epidermal growth factor (EGF), a peptide that binds to EGF receptors on cancer cells.
- Hydroxychloroquine shortages: when the enthusiasm for a potential cure affects patientsBy McGill Newsroom |Amid initial public and scientific optimism for hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a potential treatment for COVID-19, health care professionals raised concerns about shortages of this inexpensive drug, which is widely used in the treatment of several rheumatic diseases such as arthritis. A new national survey of rheumatologists led by researchers at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) shows that most of them reported difficulties accessing or renewing the drug.