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Finding the body clock’s molecular reset button

May 4, 2015 by Lab Canada Montreal, QC – An international team of scientists has discovered what amounts to a molecular reset button for our internal body clock. Their findings reveal a potential target to treat a range of disorders, from sleep disturbances to other behavioral,…
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New breast cancer gene identified by Canadian, Polish researchers

April 29, 2015 by Lab Canada Toronto, QC – An international study led by the University of Toronto and Pomeranian Medical University in Poland has identified a new breast cancer gene. The study, which was published online April 27 in Nature Genetics, describes how mutations in…
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Transforming all donated blood into a universal type

April 29, 2015 by Lab Canada Vancouver, BC – Every day, thousands of people need donated blood. But only blood without A- or B-type antigens, such as type O, can be given to all of those in need, and it’s usually in short supply. Now scientists…
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Pancreatic cancer loses viral defences in cross-talk with fibroblasts

April 23, 2015 by Lab Canada Ottawa, ON – Ottawa researchers have unlocked a way to make pancreatic cancer cells more vulnerable to cancer-killing viruses, known as oncolytic viruses. Outlined in a paper published this week by Nature Medicine, the scientists have discovered how they can…
News LaboratoryLife SciencesResearch Results

Study shows diabetes drug helps towards immunity against cancer

March 23, 2015 by Lab Canada Okayama, Japan – A study by researchers in Japan reveals how a diabetes drug helps toward the rejection of tumours by supporting immune cells. A 30-40% decrease in the risk of cancer has been observed in patients using the drug…
News General Science & ResearchLaboratoryResearch Results

New lager beer flavours pioneered by Finnish researchers

March 17, 2015 by Lab Canada Espoo, Finland – The VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, one of Northern Europe’s largest multidisciplinary research organizations, has published a groundbreaking scientific study on the successful generation of hybrid lager yeasts. The same few yeast strains have been used…
News LaboratoryLife SciencesResearch Results

Can our bones protect us against diabetes and obesity?

March 16, 2015 by Lab Canada Montreal, QC – A team of researchers at the IRCM led by Mathieu Ferron, PhD, in collaboration with researchers at Columbia University, has discovered a new function of the skeleton associated with diabetes and obesity. The scientific breakthrough, published in…
News LaboratoryLife SciencesResearch Results

Smoking thins vital part of the brain

March 4, 2015 by Lab Canada Montreal, QC – A major study by an international team, including the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University and the University of Edinburgh, shows new evidence that long-term smoking can cause thinning of the brain’s cortex. The cortex is the…
News LaboratoryLife SciencesResearch Results

Study sheds new light on factors causing pediatric food allergies

March 4, 2015 by Lab Canada Edmonton, AB – A new study from researchers at the University of Alberta and University of Manitoba is shedding new light on changes in intestinal bacteria of infants that can predict future development of food allergies or asthma. The research,…
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Nanoreactors mimic natural biosystems

February 13, 2015 by Lab Canada Saskatoon, SK – Living cells are a hive of activity, full of tiny structures making proteins, breaking down junk, and creating energy. All of this happens through a series of chemical reactions made possible largely because of the humble cell…
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Study probes molecular makeup of lung cancer tumours

February 9, 2015 by Lab Canada Toronto, ON – More than nine million people around the world will die from cancer in 2015, according to the American Cancer Society. Cancer can result from mutations to any part of the process that turns DNA into proteins –…
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Fluorescent colour-changing proteins reveal inner workings of live cells

January 28, 2015 by Lab Canada Edmonton, AB – The detection and imaging of protein-protein interactions in live cells has become much more colourful, thanks to a new technology developed by University of Alberta chemist Robert Campbell and his team. Campbell has created a new method…
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Study sheds light on sodium and blood pressure link

January 27, 2015 by Lab Canada Montreal, QC – An international research team led by scientists at McGill University has found that excessive salt intake ‘reprograms’ the brain, interfering with a natural safety mechanism that normally prevents the body’s arterial blood pressure from rising. While the…
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Deep learning finds autism, cancer mutations in unexplored regions of the genome

January 13, 2015 by Lab Canada Toronto, ON – Scientists and engineers have built a computer model that has uncovered disease-causing mutations in large regions of the genome that previously could not be explored. Their method seeks out mutations that cause changes in ‘gene splicing,’ and…
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Most types of cancer not due to ‘bad luck’

January 13, 2015 by Lab Canada Lyon, France – The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the World Health Organization’s specialized cancer agency, has issued a statement to say it strongly disagrees with the conclusion of a scientific report1 on the causes of human cancer…
News LaboratoryLife SciencesResearch Results

Breathing in diesel exhaust leads to changes in DNA

January 8, 2015 by Lab Canada Vancouver, BC – Just two hours of exposure to diesel exhaust fumes can lead to fundamental health-related changes in biology by switching some genes on, while switching others off, according to researchers at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver…
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Nanowire clothing could keep people warm

January 7, 2015 by Lab Canada Stanford, CA – To stay warm when temperatures drop outside, we heat our indoor spaces – even when no-one is in them. But scientists have now developed a novel nanowire coating for clothes that can both generate heat and trap…
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Survey highlights challenges to reproducible science for translational researchers

January 5, 2015 by Lab Canada St. Louis, MO – Sigma-AldrichCorporation has issued its second annual ‘State of Translational Research Survey Report’, addressing challenges to the reproducibility of research within the academic translational research community. The report, based on a survey conducted in concert with the…
News LaboratoryLife SciencesResearch Results

Suppressing hormone could help reduce obesity

December 9, 2014 by Lab Canada Hamilton, ON – Researchers from McMaster have identified an important hormone that is elevated in obese people and contributes to obesity and diabetes by inhibiting brown fat activity. Brown adipose tissue — widely known as ‘brown fat’ — is located…
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Researchers identify protein that controls the genome ‘guardian’

December 9, 2014 by Lab Canada Montreal, QC – A new study published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) sheds new light on a well-known mechanism required for the immune response. Researchers at the…
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Internationally significant discovery maps evolution of breast cancer

December 2, 2014 by Lab Canada Vancouver, BC – A paper in the journal Nature highlights how researchers at the BC Cancer Agency are using human breast cancer ‘avatars’ – models of human breast cancers – to measure how complex cancers develop and change over time.…
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Study identifies new player in brain function and memory

November 25, 2014 by Lab Canada Montreal, QC – Is it possible to change the amount of information the brain can store? Perhaps, according to a new international study led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC). The research has identified a…
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Discovery blocks vicious cycle of inflammation and tumour growth

November 25, 2014 by Lab Canada Edmonton, AB – A team of researchers from the University of Alberta has discovered a new approach to fighting breast and thyroid cancers by targeting an enzyme they say is the culprit for the vicious cycle of tumour growth, spread…
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New cancer genes predicted by human interactome map

November 25, 2014 by Lab Canada Toronto, ON – Scientists have created the largest-scale map to date of direct interactions between proteins encoded by the human genome and newly predicted dozens of genes to be involved in cancer. The new human interactome map describes about 14,000…
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Fecal transplant technique reaps benefits in treating IBD: study

November 21, 2014 by Lab Canada Edmonton, AB – Dina Kao, a gastroentologist at the University of Alberta Hospital and an associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry’s Department of Medicine, is one of a handful of people in Canada, and just two in…
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New test better personalizes treatment for prostate cancer

November 19, 2014 by Lab Canada Toronto, ON – Researchers at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) and University Health Network (UHN), have identified a new DNA-based test that could be used to better predict how prostate cancer patients will respond to treatment and to…
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Link between pulmonary hypertension, diabetes and cancer is discovered

November 3, 2014 by Lab Canada Edmonton, AB – A University of Alberta research team has discovered that a protein that plays a critical role in metabolism is related to the development of pulmonary hypertension, a deadly disease. Pulmonary hypertension is caused by the narrowing of…
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New therapeutic target could prevent the invasion of cancer cells

October 30, 2014 by Lab Canada Montreal, QC – A team of researchers at the IRCM, led by Jean-François Côté, have discovered a potential new therapeutic target to prevent the invasion of cancer cells, which could have a significant impact on breast cancer treatment. Their breakthrough…
News LaboratoryLife SciencesResearch Results

If you overeat, it might be a good idea to exercise

October 16, 2014 by Lab Canada Winnipeg, MB – A study shows that environmental cues such as overeating and exercise target the level of a critical anti-obesity hormone, human growth hormone (GH), by affecting the 3D-structure of the chromosome in the region where the GH gene…
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Study shows brain treatment may temper Crohn’s disease

October 16, 2014 by Lab Canada Winnipeg, MB – Recent data from the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)-Clinical and Research Centre at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg have demonstrated that those with inflammatory bowel disease are more likely to have a mood disorder long before their…
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Estrogen has surprising effects on freshwater wildlife

October 15, 2014 by Lab Canada Saint John, NB – The International Institute for Sustainable Development-Experimental Lakes Area (IISD-ELA) and the University of New Brunswick have released the findings of a study that show that the birth control pill has unexpected effects on aquatic ecosystems. The…
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Pathway linking brain to high blood pressure gets identified

October 8, 2014 by Lab Canada Ottawa, ON & Baltimore, MD – New research by scientists at the Ottawa Heart Institute and the University of Maryland School of Medicine has uncovered a new pathway by which the brain uses an unusual steroid to control blood pressure.…