According to the popular magazine Québec Science, research teams at the University of Laval contributed to three of the ten most important discoveries of 2023. The use of artificial intelligence to accurately predict the recurrence of lung cancer, the unexpected behavior of northern rivers caused by climate change and the discovery of remnants of an ice shelf that could predict the fate of Antarctica are among the advances that have won the jury's favor around ten scientists and journalists.
Artificial intelligence to accurately determine the risk of lung cancer recurrence
Professor Philippe Joubert from the Faculty of Medicine and his colleagues Logan Walsh and Daniela Quail from McGill University have developed a method that could have a significant impact on the follow-up care of people who have had surgery for lung cancer.
Using artificial intelligence, the team analyzed tumors from more than 400 lung resection patients and were able to identify 35 markers that influence the risk of recurrence. Using this data, researchers can use a tumor sample of just under 1 mm2 to predict with about 95% accuracy whether the cancer will recur in a person who has had a lung tumor removed.
About 40% of people who have lung cancer surgery will experience a recurrence. The approach developed by the researchers will make it possible to quickly identify them after surgery and offer them the most appropriate treatments for their situation.
The behavior of northern rivers defies all predictions
An international team led by Professor Pascale Roy-Léveillée from the Faculty of Forestry, Geography and Geomatics has found that northern rivers are not behaving as models predicting Arctic warming had predicted.
As permafrost thaws, several scientists predicted that lateral migration of northern rivers could accelerate due to bank destabilization and erosion. However, this hypothesis was never confronted with reality.
By analyzing satellite images taken at regular intervals covering more than a thousand kilometers of banks of ten rivers in Alaska, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories, the team found that the lateral migration of these rivers is not accelerating, but rather has decreased about 20% in the last fifty years. This situation would be due in part to the proliferation of shrubs in previously sparsely vegetated areas, which would stabilize banks and offset the effects of the thaw on the lateral migration of rivers.
Remnants of an ice shelf could predict the fate of Antarctica's glaciers
If the past is any indication of the future, the disappearance of West Antarctica's ice shelves could lead to significant sea level rise. An international team that included Patrick Lajeunesse, professor in the Faculty of Forestry, Geography and Geomatics, discovered that a similar event that occurred 14,500 years ago in Baffin Bay contributed to sea level rise of 20 meters which was recorded in the following centuries.
Antarctica is covered by a glacier lying on rocky ground. On the western side of the continent, the glacier is protected from salt water by barriers of floating ice that act as ramparts. Some of these barriers have fragmented in recent years and their disappearance risks accelerating glacier melting.
Researchers have found that a similar barrier may have existed in Baffin Bay during the last Ice Age. This barrier, covering 150,000 km2 and 500 meters thick, would have gradually disappeared due to rising temperatures, contributing to the 20 meter sea level rise recorded at the time.