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Creating new
knowledge
Exploring new avenues to develop tomorrow’s medical knowledge through an approach that integrates basic and clinical research
Our research units are led by principal investigators who collaborate in a spirit of collegiality and with the vision of bridging the gap between research and patients. They train the next generation of scientists and are independent and creative minds who work tirelessly to improve health.
Current research
"We aim to uncover why lowering plasma cholesterol increases the risk for type 2 diabetes and how to treat this in humans."
May Faraj, research director
Nutrition, Lipoproteins and Cardiometabolic Diseases
Every 3 minutes a new case of diabetes is diagnosed in Canada, mostly type 2 (T2D) increasing the risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) by 2 – 4 times. T2D and CVD share many risk factors such as aging, obesity and unhealthy lifestyle. Paradoxically however, while lowering plasma LDL, also known as “bad cholesterol”, is cardioprotective, recent epidemiological evidence shows that the lower is plasma LDL, the higher is the risk for T2D. This finding is true whether lower plasma LDL is drug-induced or hereditary. Mechanisms underlying this paradox and approaches to reduce the risk for T2D without increasing that of CVD remain unclear.
Based on our expertise over the past decade, we propose that receptor-mediated uptake of LDL into insulin-sensitive tissue, such as white adipose tissue, promotes tissue dysfunction. White adipose tissue dysfunction provokes an array of abnormalities leading to T2D especially in subjects with obesity such as chronic inflammation and anomalies in glucose and fat metabolism. We also believe that omega-3 fatty acids (omega-3) can ameliorate defects induced by tissue uptake of LDL. Omega-3 is a healthy type of fat found mostly in fish oil that has multiple cardioprotective effects.
Using a unique combination of clinical and fundamental testing, our lab started a clinical trial in 2019 exploring these hypotheses in subjects with overweight or obesity and with normal blood LDL cholesterol before and after 6-month on omega-3 supplementation. This 5-years trial is supported by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. All Canadians who fit the study inclusion criteria are welcome to join us at IRCM. We hope that together we will halt the rise in the incidence of T2D in Canada, the epidemic of the 21st century worldwide.
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Bedside-to-bench translational research in cardiometabolic disease
Our expertise in clinical and fundamental techniques in cardiometabolic disease allows us to dissect a problem observed in humans by studying it on a tissue, cell, and molecular level. To date, we have focused on a novel hypothesis initiated in our lab in 2009 linking apoB-lipoproteins, mostly LDL, to the promotion of type 2 diabetes in humans. To do so, we completed two clinical trials with fundamental studies examining the cross-talk between the intestine, liver, muscle, pancreas, white adipose tissue and circulation, which are major sites controlling metabolism in humans.
Important Discoveries
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2024 EPA and DHA inhibit LDL-induced upregulation of human adipose tissue NLRP3 inflammasome/IL-1β pathway and its association with diabetes risk factors |
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2023 Native low-density lipoproteins are priming signals of the NLRP3 inflammasome/interleukin-1β pathway in human adipose tissue and macrophages | Scientific Reports (nature.com) |
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2021 Human white adipose-tissue surface expression of LDLR and CD36 is related to the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome and risk factors for type 2 diabetes |
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2020 Proposed model for why the risks for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes can be additive or contradictory in humans |
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2013 Chronic and acute inhibitory effects of LDL on human white adipose tissue function |
Tools
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| Grants |
04/2025 - 03/2030- Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Amount: $1,346,400 Title: Effects of GLP1-agonist induced weight loss on brain, metabolic, and cerebrovascular health measures. Principle investigator: Alain Dagher (McGill University) Co-investgators: May Faraj (Université de Montréal/ IRCM); Bratislav Misic (McGill University); Christine Tardif (McGill University); Claudine Gauthier (Concordia University); Dana Small (McGill University); Filip Morys (McGill University); Ian Patton (Obesity Canada); Michael Tsoukas (McGill University); Stephanie Fulton (Université de Montréal); Xiao Wen Hu (McGill University); Yashar Zeighami (Douglas Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale)
06/2024 - 05/2025 - Département de nutrition, Université de Montréal Amount: $ 30,000 Title : Nouveau rôle de l'EPA et du DHA dans la régulation de la signalisation de TREM2 dans le tissu adipeux humain
02/2020 - Fondation J.A. DeSève Amount: $ 125,000 Title: LDL receptors and the risk for type 2 diabetes
4/2019 -03/2025 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Amount: $ 738,225 Title: White adipose tissue LDL receptors and omega-3 as modulators of the risk for type 2 diabetes |
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