Latest Ottawa Hospital Research Institute Stories

A Chicago, IL Board Certified physician specializing in Gastroenterology, Dr. Arun Ohri, is a Castle Connolly Top Doctor for 2013. CHICAGO, May 13, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Castle Connolly Medical Ltd., America's trusted source for identifying Top Doctors, has selected Chicago's Gastroenterology specialist Dr. Arun Ohri for inclusion in its highly selective list of Regional Top Doctors this year. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130513/DC12719) Castle Connolly Medical...

For Ottawa scientist and neonatologist Dr. Bernard Thébaud, even a major paper that answers five significant questions still doesn't seem quite enough in his determined path to get his laboratory breakthrough into the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Dr. Thébaud's proposed therapy would use stem cells from umbilical cords to treat a disease previously thought to be untreatable — bronchopulmonary dysplasia, or BPD. "BPD is a lung disease described 45 years ago in which we have made...

Getting a flu shot during pregnancy provides unanticipated benefits to the baby, according to the authors of a large population-based study examining the issue. Specifically, the study showed that H1N1 vaccination during the pandemic was associated with a significantly reduced risk of stillbirth, preterm birth and extremely small babies at birth. Researchers at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), the CHEO Research Institute and the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) used data from...

Scientists from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the University of Ottawa have discovered that a drug called fasudil can extend the average lifespan of mice with Spinal muscular atrophy from 30.5 days to more than 300 days Scientists from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) have discovered that a drug called fasudil can extend the average lifespan of mice with Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) from 30.5 days to more than 300 days. The...

Study led by Ottawa Hospital researcher published in the New England Journal of Medicine A study involving nearly 10,000 cardiac arrest patients from 10 North American regions has shown that extending the period of initial cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by paramedics and firefighters from one to three minutes provides no benefit. The study, led by Dr. Ian Stiell of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) and the Resuscitation Outcomes...

As Parkinson's Awareness Month gets underway, a Canadian-led international study is providing important new insight into Parkinson's disease and paving the way for new avenues for clinical trials. The study, led by Dr. Michael Schlossmacher in Ottawa, provides the first link between the most common genetic risk factor for Parkinson's and the hallmark accumulation of a protein called alpha-synuclein within the brains of people with Parkinson's. It is published in the most recent edition of the...

A new study from researchers in Canada and Sweden has shown that biosynthetic corneas can help regenerate and repair damaged eye tissue and improve vision in humans. The results, from an early phase clinical trial with 10 patients, were published in the August 25th, 2010 issue of Science Translational Medicine."This study is important because it is the first to show that an artificially fabricated cornea can integrate with the human eye and stimulate regeneration," said senior...

New Canadian study suggests commonly used type of bone marrow stem cell may be able to help treat sepsisA new study from researchers in Ottawa and Toronto suggests that a commonly used type of bone marrow stem cell may be able to help treat sepsis, a deadly condition that can occur when an infection spreads throughout the body. The study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, shows that these cells can triple survival rates in an experimental model of...

Scientists from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and the University of Ottawa have identified a promising new approach for developing drugs to treat Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the leading inherited cause of death in infants and toddlers. Dr. Rashmi Kothary and his doctoral student Melissa Bowerman have found that an enzyme called RhoA is overly active in a mouse model of the disease and blocking this enzyme can greatly increase survival. The study is published in Human...

A new study from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and the University of Ottawa suggests that stem cells intentionally break their own DNA as a way of regulating tissue development. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), could dramatically change how researchers think about tissue development, stem cells and cancer.Human cells contain 46 strands of DNA that code for all our genes. Certain chemicals and UV light can break these strands into...