Tag: Development

Discovery of the gene defective in a rare developmental disorder of the brain

Posted on | by Julie
Dr. Jacques Michaud
Dr. Jacques Michaud

In April 2009, a Quebec family experienced the worst tragedy for parents: before the age of one, one of their sons died of a rare genetic disease causing congenital microcephaly, intellectual disability, cerebral atrophy, and refractory seizures. The event was even more tragic because it was the third infant to die in this family from the same disease.

This tragedy led Dr. Jacques Michaud, professor in the Faculty of Medecine of Université de Montréal and Doctor at CHU Ste-Justine Hospital, to discover the genetic abnormality responsible for this developmental disorder. Continue reading →

Disturbing the fetal brain during pregnancy impacts neural stem cell growth of offspring into adulthood

Posted on | by Julie
Freda Miller
Dr. Freda Miller

It is well known that there are events that happen in utero that can impact the child’s health as an adult. Changes in the maternal environment can have lasting effects for the child decades later. A new study led by The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) is the first to demonstrate how disturbances (like infections) during pregnancy can result in a surge of brain stem cells in offspring. The study, published in the November 7 online edition of Cell Stem Cell, shows what occurs in the brain when the fetal environment is disturbed. Continue reading →

IRCM researchers identify new proteins crucial for hearing

Posted on | by Julie
Michel Cayouette
Dr. Michel Cayouette

A team of researchers led by Dr. Michel Cayouette at the IRCM made an important discovery, published online yesterday by the scientific journal Developmental Cell, that could better explain some inherited forms of hearing loss in humans. The Montréal scientists identified a group of proteins crucial for shaping the cellular organ responsible for detecting sounds. Continue reading →

Delayed brain development may lead to brain injury in newborns with heart birth defects

Posted on | by Julie
Dr. Steven Miller
Dr. Steven Miller

Newborns with congenital heart disease are found to be highly vulnerable to brain injuries. While the link between heart defects and slower brain development has long been demonstrated, a new study published on July 16 in Neurology has further uncovered a direct connection between altered brain development and brain injuries in newborns with congenital heart disease. Continue reading →

U0niversity of Toronto study demonstrates impact of adversity on early life development

Posted on | by Julie
Dr. Marla Sokolowski
Dr. Marla Sokolowski

Study part of growing body of knowledge surrounding gene-environment interplay

TORONTO, ON – It is time to put the nature versus nurture debate to rest and embrace growing evidence that it is the interaction between biology and environment in early life that influences human development, according to a series of studies recently published in a special edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Continue reading →

Early life adversity affects broad regions of brain DNA

Posted on | by Julie
Dr. Moshe Szyf

Study provides strong evidence of a biological process that embeds social experience in DNA that affects not just a few genes but entire networks of genes.

Early life experience results in a broad change in the way our DNA is “epigenetically” chemically marked in the brain by a coat of small chemicals called methyl groups, according to researchers at McGill University. Continue reading →

Maternal depression affects language development in babies

Posted on | by Julie
Dr. Janet Werker
Dr. Janet Werker
Maternal depression and a common class of antidepressants can alter a crucial period of language development in babies, according to a new study by researchers at the University of British Columbia, Harvard University and the Child & Family Research Institute (CFRI) at BC Children’s Hospital.

Published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study finds that treatment of maternal depression with serotonin reuptake inhibitors(SRIs) can accelerate babies’ ability to attune to the sounds and sights of their native language, while untreated maternal depression can prolong the period of tuning. Continue reading →