HEALTH
You may not realize it, but Quebec universities play an important role in our daily lives. On many levels, our institutions significantly contribute to educating our youth, as well as preparing them for future success..
For example…
- In research to find new cancer drugs, a Quebec researcher has discovered a direct link between a protein and tumour progression. This breakthrough creates a promising avenue for new cancer therapies within a few years. In addition, another researcher at a Quebec university is already developing avant-garde scanners to improve cancer diagnosis with tomography, an imaging technique used to see inside a patient’s body without surgery.
- Could nanostructures possibly attack specific cancer cells? Researchers at a Quebec university have managed to synthesize a chemotherapeutic agent that selectively punctures the membrane of cancer cells after coming into contact with them in the prostate. This is the first time that it has been shown that an artificial nanostructure can be activated by cancer cells and can destroy them. More hope for cancer victims!
- Do you suffer of hay fever? A professor from a Quebec university and one of her students collect daily pollen samples to provide allergy sufferers with a calendar of the flowering season of trees and plants to help them adapt their activities or adjust their medication to reduce their symptoms.
- Do you experience side effects when taking prescription drugs? Research at a Quebec university is showing how to treat side effects and is creating hopeful therapies for treating drug addiction and sexual disorders.
- Does having AIDS while living far from a major urban centre mean doing without specialized medical facilities? What are the difficulties of living with this disease in small communities? What about the needs of people with this disease? How do they adapt to busy family and social life? “We know very little about the routine of people who are living with HIV/AIDs in rural areas”, explained a graduate student in Nursing who is currently studying this issue at a Quebec university.
- Osteoporosis affects one of every four Canadians over the age of 60. This degenerative disease makes the bones fragile, often resulting in fractures that cannot be treated effectively at the moment. But a researcher at a Quebec university is working on a “medical cement” that would strengthen the bones of people with this disease.
- A mini-robot exploring your arteries? Quebec university researchers have achieved a major technological breakthrough in medical robotics. For the first time, researchers have succeeded in guiding an in-vivo computer-controlled microdevice to travel through an artery at a speed of 10 cm/s. This accomplishment, a world first, paves the way for new, less-invasive and more precise surgical techniques such as targeting the delivery of medication to tumor sites and using navigable biosensors for diagnosis.
- Worried about going bald? Brent Richards, Vincent Mooser and Tim Spector, researchers from Quebec and Britain, have solved the mystery of androgenetic baldness – a condition that affects most men by the age of 45.
- Thanks to the work of researchers at a Quebec university, shrimp will help people suffering from arthritis. The researchers have developed a gel made from the patient’s blood and chitosan, a substance found in the shells of crustaceans that, once injected, the biomaterial helps cartilage regenerate. Many patients have already benefited from the results of this research. As well, this innovative gel will help some patients avoid certain operations.
- The abuse of psychoactive substances by adolescent females in Nunavik is an alarming trend. Directed by two Quebec university professors in collaboration with the CIHR and the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services, their research has shown these females are abusing more alcohol, cannabis and tobacco than males in the same region.
- Can vision be restored for the blind? Thanks to Quebec university professors, this may be possible. The research into bionic eyes promises to give sight to blind people, even those who are blind from birth, without operating on the eyes or the optic nerve. This bionic eye may be implanted in patients on a routine basis within a decade.
- Quebec university researchers Nancy Frasure-Smith and François Lespérance have come together to help combat depression and anxiety. Their study shows that patients with coronary artery disease who are also clinically depressed run twice the risk of suffering repeated heart problems.
- We now know that the risk of cardiovascular disease is greater for menopausal women than for men of the same age. It is abdominal fat that is the most harmful for heart health. Research conducted by Professor Isabelle J. Dionne at a centre for research on aging shows that for menopausal women an exercise program combined with phytoestrogen treatment is more effective than an exercise program alone for losing abdominal fat.
- We must single out athletes who cheat and dishonour competitive sports. Quebec university professor Christiane Ayotte has become a leading international source for commentary on the subject, thanks to her involvement in the fight against the use of drugs in sports.
- Alzheimer’s disease can strike anyone. Quebec university researchers Serge Rivest, Alain R. Simard, Denis Soulet, Genevieve Gowing, and Jean-Pierre Julien have published a study that could change the focus of Alzheimer's research. Their research describes a natural defense mechanism released by organisms that prevents nerve cellular degeneration as observed in those afflicted with the disease.
- We all would like to get rid of trans fats and stay healthy. But what can we replace them with? A researcher at a Quebec university, in conjunction with other chemists at the university, is developing a method for partially hydrogenating certain good fats to make them semisolid while preventing the formation of trans fats.
- Thanks to the work of a Quebec university researcher Éléonore Paquet, we have succeeded in implementing a new magnetic resonance imaging technique that can be used for heart disease patients.
- How can we begin to measure the pain of patients in intensive care? Quebec researcher Céline Gélinas specializes in evaluating the pain felt by adult intensive care patients who are incapable of verbal communication. Gélinas has been granted a teaching position at a Quebec university, where she can continue her work.
- AIDS causes more than two million deaths every year. Quebec university researcher Mark Wainberg and his team are determined to understand the ways in which HIV is transmitted, how it evolves and evades pharmacological treatments, and what means can be used to better communicate this knowledge.
- A natural defence mechanism against Alzheimer’s? Yes indeed! Researchers at a Quebec university have discovered a natural defence mechanism that the body deploys to combat nerve cell degeneration observed in people with Alzheimer's disease, a disease characterized by the accumulation of amyloid proteins as plaques in the brain. The researchers observed that a certain type of microglia – the central nervous system's immune cells – that come from bone-marrow stem cells are able to infiltrate these plaques and can destroy them with unprecedented efficiency.
Many of the specialists you rely on for your health — family doctors, pediatricians, cardiologists, pneumatologist, surgeons, oto-rhino-laryngologists, neurologists, geriatricians, psychologists, psychiatrists, nursing practitioners — are graduates of Quebec universities.
In many other areas, Quebec universities are positively affecting your daily life. Click here to find out more.
