COVID-19 : Measuring viral RNA to predict which patients will die

A statistical model uses a blood biomarker of SARS-CoV-2 to identify infected patients who are most at risk of dying of COVID-19

30-Nov-2021 - The amount of a SARS-CoV-2 genetic material—viral RNA—in the blood is a reliable indicator in detecting which patients will die of the disease, a team led by Université de Montréal medical professor Dr. Daniel Kaufmann has found. The finding is published in Science Advances. Kaufmann and his team ...

Better understanding ALS by looking at how cells change

20-Mar-2018 - It took eight long years of research, but now an international team led by neuroscientists at Université de Montréal has discovered a basic molecular mechanism that better helps understand how Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), works. And that basic science could ...

Chemists use DNA to build the world's tiniest thermometer

28-Apr-2016 - Researchers at University of Montreal have created a programmable DNA thermometer that is 20,000x smaller than a human hair. This scientific advance reported this week in the journal Nano Letters may significantly aid our understanding of natural and human designed nanotechnologies by enabling to ...

Detecting HIV diagnostic antibodies with DNA nanomachines

08-Oct-2015 - New research may revolutionize the slow, cumbersome and expensive process of detecting the antibodies that can help with the diagnosis of infectious and auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and HIV. An international team of researchers have designed and synthetized a nanometer-scale ...

Chemistry professor links faeces and caffeine

Abnormal levels of caffeine in water indicate human contamination

24-Nov-2011 - Researchers led by Prof. Sébastien Sauvé of the University of Montreal’s Department of Chemistry have discovered that traces of caffeine are a useful indicator of the contamination of our water by sewers. “E coli bacteria is commonly used to evaluate and regulate the levels of fecal pollution of ...

Physicist detects movement of macromolecules engineered into our food

Prof. Rikard Blunck receives the Society of General Physiologists’ Cranefield Award for his breakthrough

13-Sep-2011 - Toxin proteins are genetically engineered into our food because they kill insects by perforating body cell walls, and Professor Rikard Blunck of the University of Montreal’s Group for the study of membrane proteins (GÉPROM) has detected the molecular mechanism involved. In recognition of his ...