According to a January 5 story in Science | Business, a team from McGill University will conduct a study with researchers at the RIKEN institute. The team, led by McGill Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Professor David Langlais, will investigate “trained immunity,” or the body’s ability to reprogram its own immune cells to respond to subsequent infections. 

The research will be funded by a grant from a partnership between the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. A separate five-year agreement signed in July 2020 between McGill and RIKEN covers the assignment of joint laboratory space and a yearly symposium.