An international team—led by researchers at McMaster University and the University of Tubingen in Germany—has sequenced the entire genome of the Black Death, one of the most devastating epidemics in human history.
A long-held mantra suggests that you can't change your family, the genes they pass on, or the effect of these genes. Now, an international team of scientists, led by researchers at McMaster and McGill universities, is attacking that belief. The researchers discovered the gene that is the strongest marker for heart disease can actually be modified by generous amounts of fruit and raw vegetables. The results of their study are published in the current issue of the journal PLoS Medicine.
Thousands of scientists around the world are working on AMPK but the McMaster team is the first to demonstrate its essential role in exercise. Their research appears in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Stomach acid-reducing drugs, known as proton pump inhibitors, may actually be aggravating damage in the small intestine caused by the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, also known as NSAIDs.
McMaster researchers have found one more reason to exercise: working out triggers influential stem cells to become bone instead of fat, improving overall health by boosting the body’s capacity to make blood.
Researchers discovered antibiotic resistant genes existed beside genes that encoded DNA for ancient life. They focused on a specific area of antibiotic resistance to the drug vancomycin, a significant clinical problem that emerged in 1980s and continues to be associated with outbreaks of hospital-acquired infections worldwide.
New research suggests a higher-protein, lower-carbohydrate energy-restricted diet has a major positive impact on body composition, trimming belly fat and increasing lean muscle, particularly when the proteins come from dairy products.
A global study in 17 countries led by McMaster University researchers has found too few patients are using drugs proven to give significant benefits in warding off a heart attack or stroke. This is true in high income countries, like Canada, as well as middle and low income countries.
A successful new rehabilitation approach to treating children with cerebral palsy puts its focus on where a child lives and plays, not just improving the child’s balance, posture and movement skills.
A new study by researchers at McMaster University has found that some ethnic groups are more likely to be adding dangerous fat onto their internal organs like their liver when they gain weight, while others just add it to their waistline.
Patients who use anti-depressants are much more likely to suffer relapses of major depression than those who use no medication at all, concludes a McMaster researcher.
The Institute for Infectious Disease Research's new Centre for Microbial Chemical Biology supports international collaborations. Its five labs serve researchers locally, nationally and internationally and provides a focal point for transdisciplinary research, bridging life and physical sciences.
This study showed that pluripotent cells are not all equal. The researchers discovered the fate – or destination – of human pluripotent stem cells is encoded by how their DNA is arranged, and this can be detected by specific proteins on the surface of the stem cells.
A little practice goes a long way, according to researchers at McMaster University, who have found the effects of practice on the brain have remarkable staying power.
McMaster researchers from three disciplines are deploying thousands of tiny worms and a homegrown invention to test drugs in a collaborative bid to defeat Parkinson’s Disease.
Contrary to McMaster researchers' findings, the American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended that screening for autism be incorporated into routine practice, such as a child’s regular physician check-up, regardless of whether a concern has been raised by the parents. In a study in the online edition of the journal Pediatrics, McMaster researchers say there is “not enough sound evidence to support the implementation of a routine population-based screening program for autism.”
Additional radiation treatment improves disease free survival lessening the chance of cancer recurring in women with early breast cancer who have had breast conserving surgery (lumpectomy), interim results of a new study found. Until now, the benefit of adding RNI for women with one to three positive nodes has been unclear.
Their landmark research discovered a family of kinase inhibitor drugs -- that all target one enzyme called IKK beta kinase --as effective for Huntington’s. Basically, the drug restores a critical chemical change that should occur in the huntingtin protein, but does not occur in people with Huntington’s disease.
A DNA-based study sheds new light on the complex evolutionary history of the woolly mammoth, suggesting it mated with a completely different and much larger species.
The research, which appears in the BioMed Central’s open access journal Genome Biology, found the woolly mammoth, which lived in the cold climate of the Arctic tundra, interbred with the Columbian mammoth, which preferred the more temperate regions of North America and was some 25 per cent larger.
Working with healthy adult mice, McMaster researchers showed that disrupting the normal bacterial content of the gut with antibiotics produced changes in behaviour.
New research from McMaster University may answer a controversial question: do the blind have a better sense of touch because the brain compensates for vision loss or because of heavy reliance on their fingertips? The study, published in the most recent edition of the Journal of Neuroscience, suggests daily dependence on touch is the answer.
This research shows for the first time the role of a specific protein – MAN2C1 – in prostate cancer development. The finding is significant because prostate cancer patients with increased levels of MAN2C1 appear to face more aggressive forms of the disease. This research could serve a diagnostic purpose in terms of likelihood of whether prostate cancers at early stages will progress into metastatic tumours.
An over-the-counter drug used to treat diarrhea combined with minocycline, an antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections, could one day change the lives of those living with cystic fibrosis.
Biochemist Yingfu Li and his research team have developed a simple test that can swiftly and accurately identify specific pathogens using a system that will ‘hunt’ for bacteria, identifying their harmful presence before they have a chance to contaminate our food and water.
The Theme for World Health Day (April 7) is antimicrobial resistance and its global spread - McMaster university experts can comment on antibiotic resistance, the search for new treatments, and the global spread of disease.
Researchers at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences have found accessing blocked arteries through the forearm compared to groin led to fewer vascular complications and similar success rates for angioplasty.
Building on research he’s conducted for the past 10 years in Canada and Britain, Larché and his research team have developed a vaccine which is effective and safe with almost no side effects. The research is published in a recent (January 2011) issue of the Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology, a leading journal in the allergy field.
Researchers at McMaster University discovered that the “cross-talk” between bacteria in our gut and our brain plays an important role in the development of psychiatric illness, intestinal diseases and probably other health problems as well including obesity.
Children and youth with the most common forms of inflammatory bowel disease have aerobic fitness levels 25 per cent lower than other children their age, and their muscle function is 10 per cent lower.
When choosing a partner, women believe the lower the man’s voice, the more likely he’s going to cheat. Conversely, men think a woman with a higher voice is more likely to be unfaithful, researchers have found.
Endurance exercise may stop you looking and feeling old, it may even help you live longer, a study by McMaster University researchers has found. The study found that premature aging in nearly every organ in the body was completely prevented in mice that ran on a treadmill three times a week for five months.
In an important breakthrough, scientists at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON, Canada, have discovered how to make human blood from adult human skin. Published in Nature, their paper has also shown the conversion of stem cells is direct, without translation through a pluripotent stem cell state.
Canadian musical icons Daniel Lanois and Jeff Healy, former federal cabinet minister The Honourable Lloyd Axworthy, and astronaut Julie Payette are among the distinguished recipients who will be given honorary degrees at McMaster University's Spring Convocation ceremonies, June 2-4.