Cancer is not made up of identical cells. Tumors are complex ecosystems where some cells are far more dangerous than others. Identifying these high-risk cells has been a major challenge, because existing technologies either capture detailed information from a small number of cells or broader data from many patients, but not both.

The new AI tool, called SIDISH, bridges this gap by combining these two types of data. It learns from large patient datasets while also zooming in on individual cells, allowing researchers to identify which cells are linked to poor outcomes and disease progression.

Using this approach, the team was able to detect small populations of high-risk cancer cells across multiple cancer types, link these cells to worse patient survival, identify key genes and pathways driving aggressive disease, and simulate potential treatments in silico (virtually) to find targets that could reduce these harmful cells

Importantly, the tool doesn’t just describe the disease, but it can help predict how a patient’s cancer might behave and suggest more personalized treatment strategies.

By revealing the hidden drivers of cancer at the cellular level, this research moves us closer to precision medicine, where therapies are tailored not just to the patient, but to the most dangerous cells within their tumor.

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SIDISH integrates single-cell and bulk transcriptomics to identify high-risk cells and guide precision therapeutics through in silico perturbation. Jolasun Y, Song K, Zheng Y, Wang J, Fonseca GJ, Eidelman DH, Ding J.
Nat Commun. 2025 Dec 10;16(1):11271.

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AI tool pinpoints cells driving aggressive cancers. New approach opens door to better-targeted treatments and faster drug discovery for complex diseases. McGill Newsroom. April 15, 2026.

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Through interviews with community members and healthcare workers, researchers found that while Inuit strongly value health and want to eliminate TB, current care systems often create additional challenges. Patients frequently face travel away from their communities, long periods of isolation, language barriers, and limited access to culturally safe care. Gaps in communication also contribute to fear, stigma, and uncertainty around the disease.

Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, Inuit participants are calling for care that is community-driven, culturally grounded, and responsive to their needs. Their recommendations include increasing Inuit leadership in health services, expanding local access to care, improving communication, and reducing stigma through education and support.

This work underscores an important message: improving health outcomes requires not only medical solutions, but also listening to communities and designing care systems that truly serve them.

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Inuit experiences of and expertise on the 21st-century tuberculosis epidemic in Nunavik, Quebec: a qualitative community-based participatory study. Geboe B, Sandy G, Tooktoo D, Tukalak S, Law S, White-Dupuis S, Nappaaluk Q, Aliqu N, Quananack E, Emudluk M Sr, Watt L, Mangiok P, Dunn-Suen A, Yaaka M, MacDonald NI, Khan FA. CMAJ. 2026 Apr 5;198(13):E474-E485.

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Promoting reconciliation through research. Orr PH. CMAJ. 2026 Apr 5;198(13):E508-E509.

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Comment venir à bout de l’épidémie de tuberculose au Nunavik ? La Presse. par Katrine Desautels. 6 avril 2026.

Under-resourced tuberculosis care causes hardship: In new study, Nunavik Inuit call for person-centered approaches. Led by a majority Inuit and First Nations research team at The Institute and the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services, the study highlights the experiences and perspectives of Inuit communities affected by the current tuberculosis crisis. The Institute News. April 7, 2026.

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In a recent preclinical study published in Biomaterials, the gel increased stem cell survival more than fivefold compared to conventional approaches. By acting as a biodegradable scaffold, the gel creates space within cell clusters, allowing oxygen and nutrients to circulate more effectively and enhancing their ability to repair damaged muscle tissue.

In animal models, a single injection improved stem cell retention and led to measurable gains in swallowing muscle function. This minimally invasive approach could offer a new therapeutic option for patients who currently rely on rehabilitation or surgery.

The technology has already undergone early-phase clinical testing in Japan in a different therapeutic context. Researchers are now exploring its long-term potential and applications in other conditions, including vocal cord injury, age-related muscle loss, and muscular dystrophy.

Dr. Nicole Li-Jessen is an member of the RI-MUHC RESP Program.

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New injectable gel could help repair damaged swallowing muscles. Biomaterial increases stem cell survival fivefold in preclinical tests, paving the way for advances in regenerative treatments. McGill News. March 17, 2026.

New injectable gel could help repair damaged swallowing muscles. Researchers from The Institute, McGill University and Kyoto University team up to develop biomaterial that increases stem cell survival fivefold in preclinical tests, paving the way for advances in regenerative treatments. The Institute News. April 28, 2026

Trouble swallowing? A nanogel tweak may keep therapeutic stem cells alive longer. Phys.org. Edited by Gaby Clark, reviewed by Robert Egan. March 11, 2026.

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Click-crosslinked nanogels integrated into 3D stem cell spheroids enhance regenerative function for swallowing muscle repair. Okuyama H, Brown M, Munipalle M, Nejati S, Huo R, Sakata H, Mizuta R, Sasaki Y, Akiyoshi K, Ohnishi H, Kishimoto Y, Omori K, Li J, Mongeau L, Li-Jessen NYK. Biomaterials. 2026 Jul;330:124044. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2026.124044. Epub 2026 Feb 3.

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Developed by a team led by Sara Mahshid at McGill University, Dao Nguyen of the Meakins-Christie Labs, and Cedric Yansouni of the RI-MUHC, QolorPhAST uses nano-engineered colour-changing sensors that respond to bacterial metabolism. When paired with machine-learning image analysis, the system rapidly identifies both the bacterial species and its antibiotic susceptibility without the need for overnight cultures.

In blind testing on clinical urine samples, the device showed high accuracy compared to gold-standard laboratory methods, while delivering results in a fraction of the time. Designed to be low-cost, portable, and easy to use, QolorPhAST could support faster, more precise treatment decisions for infections such as urinary tract and sexually transmitted infections.

The team is now working toward commercialization. As antimicrobial resistance continues to rise globally, innovations like this may represent a critical step toward preserving the effectiveness of existing antibiotics.

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McGill researchers develop quick test that stands to curb antimicrobial resistance. System that can identify bacteria in less than 40 minutes could help physicians prescribe the appropriate antibiotics, amid ongoing urgency of antimicrobial resistance crisis. McGill Newsroom. February 4, 2026.

McGill researchers, including scientists at The Institute, develop rapid test to curb antimicrobial resistance. System that can identify bacteria in less than 40 minutes could help physicians prescribe the appropriate antibiotics amid the ongoing antimicrobial resistance crisis. The Institute News. February 13, 2026.

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Ultra-rapid nanoplasmonic colorimetry in microfluidics for antimicrobial susceptibility testing directly from specimens. Jalali M, AbdElFatah T, Del Real Mata C, I Hosseini I, Yedire SG, McKay GA, Corsini R, Siavash Moakhar R, Shieh H, Reszetnik G, Hamidi SV, Yansouni CP, Nguyen D, Mahshid S. Nat Nanotechnol. 2026 Feb 2. doi: 10.1038/s41565-025-02075-z.

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Using data from multiple large cohorts, researchers found that people exposed to challenges early in life, such as maternal smoking, preterm birth, low birthweight, or socioeconomic hardship, were more likely to have a larger height-GaP deficit as adults. This gap consistently reflected cumulative early-life stress across diverse populations.

Importantly, a larger height-GaP deficit was strongly associated with a higher risk of death in adulthood, including deaths from cardiovascular disease. These links held even after accounting for genetics and adult health factors, showing that it’s not height itself, but falling short of genetic growth potential, that matters.

Height-GaP offers a practical new tool to study early-life adversity, identify long-term health risks, and guide prevention strategies, highlighting how experiences early in life can quietly shape health outcomes years later.

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Quantifying the impact of early life growth adversity on later life health. Goldman-Pham R, Alter MP, Bao R, Collins SÉ, Debban CL, Allinson JP, Ambler A, Bertoni AG, Caspi A, Lovinsky-Desir S, Ekstrom MP, Engert JC, Jacobs DR Jr, Malinsky D, Manichaikul A, Michos ED, Moffitt TE, Oelsner EC, Ramrakha S, Rich SS, Sack C, Stanojevic S, Subbarao P, Sugden K, Theodore R, Watson KE, Williams B, Yang B, Dupuis J, Shaheen SO, Barr RG, Hancox RJ, Smith BM. Commun Med (Lond). 2025 Nov 17;5(1):534.

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To mark more than a decade of progress in trained immunity research, an international team of scientists has curated a major Focus Issue on Trained Immunity in eLife. This special collection brings together over 30 original research articles, reviews, and perspectives, showcasing the scientific advances that have shaped the field and outlining key priorities for the next generation of discovery.

🔗 Focus Issue homepage:
https://elifesciences.org/collections/2d9894e6/focus-issue-trained-immunity

International Leadership and Meakins Contributions

The Focus Issue was assembled over nearly two years by a global editorial team, including early-career investigators alongside founding leaders of the field. The editorial provides a unifying framework for understanding how trained immunity reshapes innate immune responses through metabolic, epigenetic, and functional reprogramming, and why this matters for human health.

Members of the Meakins-Christie research community played a prominent role in this collection:

• Editorial: Kaufmann E, Sohrabi Y, Domínguez-Andrés J, Novakovic B, Netea MG, van der Meer JWM
  A field-defining perspective that synthesizes the first decade of trained immunity research and articulates critical challenges and opportunities ahead, from translational applications to unresolved mechanistic questions.
  🔗 https://elifesciences.org/articles/106029
• Review article: Tran BT, Jeyanathan V, Cao R, Kaufmann E, King KY.
  A comprehensive review highlighting emerging concepts and experimental approaches in trained immunity, with relevance across infection, inflammation, and vaccinology.
• Research article: Prevel R, Pernet E, Tran KA, Sadek A, Sadeghi M, Lapshina E, Jurado LF, Kristof AS, Moumni M, Poschmann J, Divangahi M.
  Original research advancing our understanding of trained immune responses, further demonstrating the depth and breadth of contributions from the Meakins-Christie community.

Notably, many contributors to the Focus Issue are also speakers and participants in the September 2026 Trained Immunity Meeting, underscoring the strong integration between this editorial effort and the broader international research network driving the field forward.

Why Trained Immunity Matters

Trained immunity has rapidly evolved from a conceptual breakthrough into a clinically relevant framework with implications for:

• Improving vaccine efficacy and durability
• Understanding heterologous protection against infections
• Explaining maladaptive inflammation in chronic disease
• Informing host-directed therapies in cancer and infection

By reframing innate immunity as adaptable rather than static, this field opens new avenues for precision immunology and preventive medicine.

Looking Ahead

This eLife Focus Issue not only celebrates the scientific milestones of the past decade but also serves as a roadmap for future research, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches, human-centered studies, and translational impact.

We are proud to see Meakins-Christie researchers contributing to, and helping lead, this global effort to redefine how we think about immune memory.

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Focus Issue: Trained Immunity. Our latest Focus Issue looks at what we’ve learnt over the past decade and what’s next for the field of trained immunity. eLife November 2025

Kaufmann E, Sohrabi Y, Domínguez-Andrés J, Novakovic B, Netea MG, van der Meer JWM. Evolving our understanding of trained immunity. Elife. 2025 Nov 5;14:e106029.

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The findings are striking: between 2024 and 2050, expanded TB screening and preventive treatment could prevent up to 26% of TB cases in the highest-burden countries studied. Preventive treatment alone accounted for roughly one-third of this impact. Economically, every dollar invested would generate large societal returns, ranging from $8 in Georgia to $54 in South Africa, by averting the costs of illness, disability, and premature death. The interventions proved cost-effective across all settings, even when accounting for implementation expenses, with the strongest returns in regions with higher TB prevalence.

Dr. Jonathon Campbell, an epidemiologist and health economist with the McGill International TB Centre and Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE), notes that the tools to eliminate TB already exist. “Our study shows that we can prevent millions of people from developing and dying from tuberculosis by implementing interventions that already exist—generating large societal returns on investment,” he says. The results strengthen the economic and public health case for countries and global donors to urgently expand TB prevention strategies, advancing the goal of ending TB worldwide.

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The effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, budget impact, and return on investment of scaling up tuberculosis screening and preventive treatment in Brazil, Georgia, Kenya, and South Africa: a modelling study. Vesga JF, Mohamed MS, Shandal M, Jabbour E, Lomtadze N, Kubjane M, Trajman A, Meyer-Rath G, Avaliani Z, Rotich W, Mwai D, Croda J, Mathema HT, Kathure I, Pola R, Costa FD, Ndjeka NO, Danelia M, Tonini ML, Solomonia N, Pelissari DM, Falzon D, Miller C, Baena IG, Arinaminpathy N, Schwartzman K, Den Boon S, Campbell JR. Lancet Glob Health. 2025 Nov;13(11):e1857-e1868. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(25)00321-3.

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Expanding TB prevention could save millions of lives and yield major economic benefits, global study finds. An international study led by Jonathon Campbell at The Institute highlights the powerful health and economic impact of expanding preventive tuberculosis measures. The Institute News. October 23, 2025

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The project was led by Professors Maryam Tabrizian and Nicole Li-Jessen. The research marks a key step toward a minimally invasive and durable treatment for vocal cord injuries, which affect roughly one in 13 adults annually. The team now plans to simulate how the gel behaves in the human body, with the ultimate goal of advancing to clinical trials.

Nicole Li-Jessen’s research aims to advance personalized medicine for voice and upper airway disorders by integrating cutting-edge technologies such as biological computing, regenerative biomaterials, and point-of-care diagnostics. Her team is developing non-invasive tools to assess airway reflux, 3D-printable biomaterials for vocal tissue and muscle reconstruction, and wearable e-health devices to monitor voice and airway function in real time.

Clicktetrazine dECM-alginate hydrogels for injectable, mechanically mimetic, and biologically active vocal fold biomaterials. Brown M, Okuyama H, Li L, Yang Z, Li J, Tabrizian M, Li-Jessen NYK. Biomaterials. 2026 Feb;325:123590.

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New injectable gel shows promise as voice loss treatment. McGill team develops hydrogel that outlasted current treatments in a preclinical study, a step toward reducing the need for repeat procedures. McGill News. by Keila DePape. Oct 15, 2025.

Un hydrogel développé à McGill pourrait guérir les cordes vocales. Radio Canada. Oct 10, 2025.

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In a study published in Nature Communications, the team showed that DOLPHIN detected over 800 disease markers missed by traditional approaches in pancreatic cancer cells. The tool distinguished aggressive cancers from less severe cases, offering insights that could help doctors match patients to the right treatments earlier and more accurately.

Beyond immediate applications, DOLPHIN lays the foundation for building virtual cell models—digital simulations of cell behavior that could speed drug discovery and reduce reliance on trial-and-error in the clinic.

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DOLPHIN advances single-cell transcriptomics beyond gene level by leveraging exon and junction reads.
Song K, Zheng Y, Zhao B, Eidelman DH, Tang J, Ding J. Nat Commun. 2025 Jul 4;16(1):6202.

In the News

New AI tool detects hidden warning signs of disease. Researchers say a closer look inside cells could be used by physicians to detect diseases earlier and better match patients to therapies. by Keila DePape, McGill Newsroom. October 1, 2025.

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In the study, 55 healthy adults wore three types of sensors for almost two weeks while receiving a mild flu vaccine. The devices tracked heart rate, temperature, breathing, sleep, and activity, generating over two billion data points. This information trained AI models to recognize subtle body changes linked to inflammation—often before people felt sick or tested positive. The wearable-based models outperformed symptom reporting, even detecting early immune responses in participants who had no symptoms at all, including cases of COVID-19.

The technology could help doctors and patients act earlier to prevent complications, especially for vulnerable groups like people with COPD. The research led to the creation of a Montreal startup, Sensifai Health Inc., which aims to bring this proactive health monitoring tool to market.

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Development of machine learning prediction models for systemic inflammatory response following controlled exposure to a live attenuated influenza vaccine in healthy adults using multimodal wearable biosensors in Canada: a single-centre, prospective controlled trial. Hadid A, McDonald EG, Ding Q, Phillipp C, Trottier A, Dixon PC, Jlassi O, Cheng MP, Papenburg J, Libman M, Jensen D. Lancet Digit Health. 2025 Jul 2:100886.

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Montreal researchers use AI and wearable sensors to detect inflammation before symptoms appear. The Institute News. July 30, 2025

McGill University team develops AI that can detect infection before symptoms appear. CTV News. by The Canadian Press. July 30, 2025

Montreal researchers use AI and wearable sensors to detect inflammation before symptoms appear. The world’s first wearable-powered system predicts acute inflammation with 90 per cent sensitivity. McGill News. July 30, 2025.

McGill team develops AI to detect infection before symptoms appear. CityNews. By Jean-Benoit Legault, The Canadian Press. July 30, 2025.

McGill researchers develop AI that predicts respiratory illness before symptoms show. Ring, watch and T-shirt equipped with sensors recorded biometric data to accurately predict acute systemic inflammation. National Post. July 30, 2025.

Montreal researchers using AI to detect infection before symptoms appear. CBC News. July 30, 2025.

McGill researchers use AI to detect infection before symptoms appear. Global News. August 7, 2025.

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