What makes RAMEN innovative is its ability to build smart, disease-focused maps of clinical variables (called Bayesian networks) that not only find direct links but also reveal subtle, indirect connections that may be critical for diagnosis and treatment. The researchers tested RAMEN on thousands of patient records and found that it consistently outperformed existing methods in identifying key indicators of disease severity, some of which were later confirmed using gene and protein data.

Because RAMEN works across different diseases and doesn’t rely on prior assumptions, it holds promise for improving personalized medicine—helping doctors tailor care based on patterns hidden in patient data. Its speed and scalability make it especially valuable for analyzing large healthcare datasets, paving the way for faster insights into disease mechanisms and better patient outcomes.

Read More

Efficient and scalable construction of clinical variable networks for complex diseases with RAMEN. Xiong Y, Wang J, Shang X, Chen T, Fraser DD, Fonseca GJ, Rousseau S, Ding J. Cell Rep Methods. 2025 Apr 21;5(4):101022. doi: 10.1016/j.crmeth.2025.101022. Epub 2025 Apr 10. PMID: 40215965

The post New AI Tool Reveals Hidden Clues to Disease Outcomes appeared first on Meakins-Christie Laboratories.

Basil Petrof. Co-Investigator: Jun Ding. The role of trained macrophages in dystrophic diaphragm pathology.

Sabah Hussain.  Co-Principal Investigator: Gilles Gouspillou. Co-Applicants: Jean-Philippe Leduc-Gaudet, Vanina Romanello, Marco Sandri. Regulation of skeletal muscle and peroxisomal homeostasis by Depp1 protein.

See the RI-MUHC website for more information on the Fall 2024 CIHR competition results.

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Faiz Ahmad Khan.  Co-Principal Applicants: Natasha MacDonald, Glenda Sandy. Utirtisiniq Puvallutulirinirmut arqutigitsugu Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit: Nuisivalialuni Nunavimmiut arqirutisaginnik puvalluniup ammalu namasiangitunut anniasiuriujut Nunavimmi Decolonizing TB Healthcare Through Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit: developing Nunavimmiut-led solutions to the continuing crises of TB and inadequate healthcare in Nunavik. Ranked 2nd in the Indigenous Health Research Committee!

Andrea Benedetti. Recovering from the COVID-19 Pandemic, Informing Future Public Health Crises, and Building a Global Evidence Base for Mental Health Research: A Systematic Review of COVID-19-related Mental Health.

Jonathon Campbell. Co-Investigators: Faiz Ahmad Khan, Andrea Benedetti, Richard Menzies. Risk Assessment and Determinants of Tuberculosis Associated Respiratory Impairment and Disability (RADAR-TB): A Systematic Review and Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis.

Maziar Divangahi. Programming Innate Memory Responses to promote host defense against SARS-CoV-2 Pneumonia. (Priority Announcement: Pandemic Preparedness and Health Emergencies Research.)

Bruce Mazer. B-Lymphocyte derived extracellular vesicles as key regulators of allergic airway inflammation.

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Carolyn Baglole. Co-PI: Gregory Fonseca, Jun Ding. Decoding how the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) controls cigarette smoke-induced lung inflammation and development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Andrea Benedetti. Recovering from the COVID-19 Pandemic, Informing Future Public Health Crises, and Building a Global Evidence Base for Mental Health Research: A Systematic Review of COVID-19-related Mental Health. (Bridge grant).

The post CIHR Project Grant Results – Fall 2023 appeared first on Meakins-Christie Laboratories.

What was discovered is that the earlier two phases of the pandemic resulted in less than 0.3% (by May 2020) and only 9% (by November 2021) infection-acquired seroprevalence in Canadians, despite the huge impact on our society and healthcare system. Yet, despite a much higher rate of vaccination for the Omicron wave (December 2021 to March 2023), the rate of infection increased significantly, such that:

“After six months with the Omicron variant circulating in Canada, in mid-June 2022, infection-acquired seroprevalence had risen to 47%, with an average monthly increase of 6.4% per month. It ultimately reached over 75% by March 2023.”

Bruce Mazer

By March 2023, younger cohorts (ages 18-25) were showing higher evidence of a previous infection, which diminished as the age of the cohorts increased (people aged between 25-39 years, 40-59 and over 60). Since Spring 2023, the rate of infection in older adults has increased, although the overall rate of infection-acquired seroprevalence has diminished.

Dr. Bruce Mazer is study co-lead, Associate Scientific Director, Strategy at the CITF and Senior Scientist at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre.

Read the RI-MUHC Article

More than 75% of Canadians had immunity to SARS-CoV-2 due to infection by March 2023 August 14, 2023 RI-MUHC News.

Read the CITF publication in CMAJ

“The Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence in Canada – A Time-Series Study, 2020-2023”. CMAJ 2023 August 14;195:E1030-7. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.230949

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(Time on Podcast: 10:45). How do we reduce the severity of long-COIVD symptoms? Dr. Tania Janaudis-Ferreira describes some of the symptoms patients with long-COVID experience. These can include fatigue, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, difficulty concentrating, memory deficiency, anxiety, depression, pain, sleeping problems, headaches, dizziness, among others. Some even experience post-exertional malaise, which is an exacerbation of symptoms that occurs 24-72 hours after an activity, sometimes even after a small exertion. Patients often refer to this as an overexertion that can trigger the need for rest. Some of these symptoms can linger for weeks and even months. The good news is that long-COIVD may benefit from a rehabilitation program. These rehab programs are program often used for other chronic diseases, so have proved to be beneficial in different populations. The long-COVID rehabilitation study is 100% virtual – so participants complete the program in the comfort of their own homes. This study really increases access to this rehabilitation program. Participants only need to fill out online questionnaires, then zoom sessions are scheduled for assessments. The participants are then given specific exercises with a trained kinesiologist. The goal is to improve mobility, quality of life in addition to the general wellbeing of patients suffering from long-COVID.

Further information is available by emailing covid_rehab @ rimuhc.ca

Listen to the Podcast

Preparing for the next Pandemic. The MUHC Foundation’s Health Matters. March 26, 202.

Web: https://bit.ly/3CvxdMb
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/32HFxrc
Apple: https://apple.co/35NvItS

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(Time on podcast: 09:50). Dr. Ben Smith hopes to reprogram your lungs with a new study funded by the MUHC Foundation through the Trottier Webster Innovation Award. Dr. Smith, together with his team members Dr. Jun Ding and Dr. Larry Lands are using this funding to test a novel hypothesis. When designing their project, they considered the following: 1) What is a big problem in respiratory diseases and 2) What innovative technique could they apply to help solve this problem. In respiratory diseases, there are many chronic lung diseases, but one does stand out and that is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD is the 3rd leading cause of death worldwide and is associated with reduced quality of life, breathlessness, sputum production, and a lot of health services utilization. COPD tends to be a chronic problem and in some individuals, the disease can progress quickly. Unfortunately, no game changing treatment currently exists. To hopefully identify novel COPD treatments, the team turned to RNA technologies. There have been major advances in RNA therapeutics in recent years (think of COVID-19). This project will explore this technology in COPD. Cells in our lungs need to divide and maintain themselves over our lifespan. The current understanding for COPD is that those cells that help to maintain the lung have become “exhausted”. They cannot divide and regenerate the lung to the same extent that a normal lung can. The progenitor cells in the lung of COPD patients tend to be exhausted and this may lead to the recurring symptoms and infections these patients experience. This study will look at which genes are turned on or turned off in these healthy vs “exhausted ” COPD cells. Then the team will test if they can deliver RNA in an aerosol mist to try to reprogram these exhausted lung cells into a more youthful lung cell so that it could continue to maintain the lung.

(Time on podcast: 19:53). Dr. Deborah Assayag describes how she is helping patients with interstitial lung disease ILD) breathe easier. The Montreal Chest institute has a clinic specialized in ILDs. ILDs are a group of disease that affect the lung tissue and are associated with progressing inflammation and scarring of lung tissue. There are many things that can cause ILDs, such as exposures (asbestos, autoimmune diseases) or even genetic predisposition. It comes as no surprise that ILDs can significantly affect patients’ lives. They experience shortness of breath and suffer from chronic cough, which can limit their daily activities. As the disease progresses, they often have to go on oxygen therapy and their life expectance is shortened. ILDs are rare when compared to asthma and COPD, but the lack of effective treatment options makes this an important disease to study. The ILD clinic at the Montreal Chest Institute is gathering as much clinical information on its patients to really understand the natural history of the disease. With this information, the ILD clinic will be able to better understand risk factors that trigger or worsen the disease. There is also the risk that there are many patients that are not diagnosed or misdiagnosed – delays in diagnosis (between 1-3 years) can really impact patients’ lives. Dr. Assayag’s research program builds upon her clinical experience and allows her to identify the gaps in the field of ILDs and find innovative ways to address these gaps in knowledge.

Listen to the Podcast

Understanding the care in palliative care. The MUHC Foundation’s Health Matters. February 19, 2023.

Web: https://bit.ly/3CvxdMb
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/32HFxrc
Apple: https://apple.co/35NvItS

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Read more

Alveolar macrophages on patrol for respiratory health. In a study published in Nature, RI-MUHC researchers examine how the lung copes with invading microbes. RI-MUHC News. January 24, 2023

Alveolar macrophages, the lungs’ safeguard. by K. Coco Zhang. The McGill Tribune. March 7, 2023.

Read the Publication

Neonatal imprinting of alveolar macrophages via neutrophil-derived 12-HETE. Pernet E, Sun S, Sarden N, Gona S, Nguyen A, Khan N, Mawhinney M, Tran KA, Chronopoulos J, Amberkar D, Sadeghi M, Grant A, Wali S, Prevel R, Ding J, Martin JG, Thanabalasuriar A, Yipp BG, Barreiro LB, Divangahi M. Nature. 2023 Jan 4. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05660-7. PMID: 36599368

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(Time on Podcast: 20:00). Kriti Agarwal is a recipient of the 2022-2023 Margaret Becklake Fellowship. She came from India to pursue her PhD at McGill University. The Montreal Chest Institute has a long history in Montreal and has been treating patients with respiratory diseases for over a century. The Margaret Becklake Fellowship is a prestigious award bestowed to students to pursue respiratory research at the Montreal Chest Institue and the RI-MUHC. Rehabilitation science is about physical and occupation therapy to provide the physical rehabilitation to patients. The research project will focus on virtual rehabilitation in patients with long COVID. This is an intervention study on patients currently living with long COVID. A team of professionals will work with patients up to 3 times per week and develop personalized plans that are offered virtually. This program offers a flexible program for patients that they can complete in the comfort of their homes.

About the Margaret Becklake Fellowship: https://meakinsmcgill.com/margaret-becklake-fellowship/

Listen to the Podcast

Helping young health care professionals thrive. The MUHC Foundation’s Health Matters. December 11, 2022.

Where to listen:
Web: http://bit.ly/3aQfvVQ
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/32HFxrc
Apple: https://apple.co/35NvItS

The post Health Matters: Becklake Fellow Discusses Project on Long-COVID and Rehab appeared first on Meakins-Christie Laboratories.

Watch the interview here

Dr. Deborah Assayag raises awareness for pulmonary fibrosis. CTV News Montreal. October 29, 2022

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