Project with MILC Members funded by CIHR to improve breastfeeding support and maternal health11/11/2024
MILC Members Dr. Nathan Nickel (left) and Dr. Garry Shen (right) have both received funding from the CIHR Operating Grant: National Women's Health Research Initiative (NWHRI) Innovation Fund. Their combined funding totals more than $1.1 million.
The project led by Dr. Nickel is titled "THRIVE: Transforming Healthcare through Research to Improve Breastfeeding and Advance Women's Health". This project will expand the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative to community health centres across Canada. The project led by Dr. Shen is titled "Protecting and Supporting Breastfeeding and Lactation Equity in Manitoba through Community-Integrated Education and Care using Culturally Safe and Gender-Affirming Care". This project will address the gaps in access to breastfeeding support in Manitoba, in particular for First Nations families, 2SLGBTQI parents and other underrepresented groups. To read more click here.  Left to right: Zahra Nouri, Narges Khodabandehloo, Laura Noël-Romas, Karinne Muniz, Michelle Olivson, Larisa Lotoski, Saeid Khakisahneh, Rowan Shwaluk, Kelsey Fehr, Sarah Turner and Meghan Azad THRiVE Discovery Lab is proud to celebrate the successful PhD defense of Sarah Turner! Sarah defended her thesis titled: "Infant Feeding and Child Cognition and Behavior: Quantifying Pathways to Understanding the Link in the CHILD Cohort Study." We’re so grateful for Sarah’s contributions to the lab and wish her all the best in her next chapter. Sarah will be working as Post-Doctoral Fellow and Researcher at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy. Congratulations, Dr. Turner!
Click here to see a thread on Twitter about Sarah's defense. THRiVE Lab welcomes new graduate students Karinne Cardoso Muniz (right) and Rowan Schwaluk (left) for Fall 2024 at the University of Manitoba.
Karinne is a Pediatrician specializing in Neonatology with years of experience in newborn care acquired in Brazil. She is pursuing a MSC in the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health. She combines her clinical expertise with a research-oriented approach to contribute to breastfeeding and human milk knowledge. Rowan comes to THRiVE with a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from the University of Manitoba. Her Honours project explored cancer proliferation and methods to better study the over expression of Alu RNA in cancer cells. Rowan was previously part of the THRiVE team as a CHRIM Summer Studentship recipient, studying variables in human milk nutrition. Rowan is now pursuing a MSc in Immunology to continue investigating the dynamics of human milk composition. Project with MILC Collaborators funded by CIHR National Women's Health Research Initiative10/9/2024
 Image credit: Garry Shen A CIHR National Women's Health Research Initiative grant involving many MILC collaborators has been funded. MILC members on the study team include Carol Dyck (co-founder of Milk Mentors), Drs. Christina Raimondi and Katherine Kearns (co-founders of the Winnipeg Breastfeeding Clinic), Kira Friesen (clinical nurse specialist, HSC), Narges Khodabandehloo (MSc student), and Meghan Azad (MILC Director). The project is titled, Protecting and supporting breastfeeding and lactation equity in Manitoba through community-integrated education and care using novel technologies, culturally safe and gender affirming approaches. The project is led by Dr. Garry Shen and will expand the Milk Mentors program, develop a lactation course for health care providers, and create a 'lactation support hub' for the province.
 Photo credit: CTV News THRiVE Director Meghan Azad was interviewed by CTV News about a new study on breastfeeding and the microbiome. She also described the new MILC research study, open for recruitment as of October 2024. Read more here.
  Photo credit: Nature Communications THRiVE Director Dr. Meghan Azad, along with former THRiVE postdoc Dr. Kozeta Miliku and the CHILD Study team, published Human milk oligosaccharides are associated with maternal genetics and respiratory health of human milk-fed children in the Nature Communications. This paper explores the mother-milk-infant "triad" that has evolved to protect and nourish babies, and how HMO's are produced during lactation along with the genes that drive the process. The project was a collaboration with Dr. Lars Bode at UC San Diego and Dr. Qingling Duan at Queen's University. Tweetorial
 Imagine credit: The Economist MILC Director Dr. Meghan Azad was interviewed by the Economist for a piece titled: Breast milk's benefits are not limited to babies. The article provides a deep dive into cutting edge research in milk science.
 Rowan Shwaluk, a MILC Summer Student, showcased her research project titled “Understanding the Predictors of Human Milk Composition Variation with an Observational Approach” at the CHRIM Summer Research Rounds on August 27th, 2024. Her project analyzed data from The International Milk Composition (IMiC) Consortium. Congratulations to Rowan for delivering an engaging and insightful presentation!
 Credit: promotional graphic created by MILC and shared on Reddit. Personal selfies shared by event collaborators on X (Twitter). From left to right: Ryan Pace, Meghan Azad, and Bridget McGann. In honor of World Breastfeeding Week, THRiVE and MILC teamed up with the “r/AskScience, forum on Reddit to host an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session with lactation researchers hailing from the fields of biochemistry, epidemiology, microbiology, neonatology, family medicine, nursing, epigenetics, and biological anthropology. This was a valuable opportunity to take a step back from our day-to-day work and get a snapshot of what the general public is thinking and wondering about breast milk and lactation. Our expert panelists were impressed with how thoughtful and informed the Redditors’ questions were (over 90 in total!) - ranging from lactation pharmacology, antibodies in donor milk and risks/benefits of formula, to infant feeding controversies, lactation-related misinformation, and trans lactation... and much more! This AMA Session was part of our knowledge mobilization efforts at MILC & THRiVE recognizing that public science engagement is a crucial strategy for combating misinformation, increasing interest and accessibility to careers in science, and increasing public support for research funding as well as for public policies that improve reproductive and child health.
The participants were:
  Credit: International Breastfeeding Journal MILC Director Dr. Meghan Azad, together with former MILC postdocs Dr. Sarah Reyes and Dr. Merilee Brockway, published Human milk composition and infant anthropometrics: overview of a systemic review with clinical and research implications in the International Breastfeeding Journal. In this overview of a large systematic review undertaken by the International Milk Composition (IMiC) Consortium, the authors emphasize the limited quality of evidence on the relationship between human milk composition and infant growth. They recommend future research should engage in more accurate data collection using standardized collection strategies, use assays that are validated for human milk, and consider approaches that approach human milk as a biological system rather than discrete individual components. (edited)
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