Published in the National Geographic magazine, "Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why" shares personal breastfeeding stories and discusses the biology of breastfeeding, how it can go wrong, and the future of research - including the funding difficulties researchers have faced in this area. The article mentions the International Milk Composition (IMiC) Consortium, co-directed by THRiVE Discovery Lab and MILC leaders Meghan Azad & Natalie Rodriguez. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, IMiC is uniting maternal-child health and human milk researchers with statistical experts to co-develop a harmonized approach to human milk analysis. Read the article here.

The Canadian Student Health Research Forum (CSHRF) and Gairdner Symposium were held jointly June 13-20, 2022 at the University of Manitoba. This annual event offered a venue for networking, research exposure, and recognized some of Canada's most promising research trainees in the health sciences. THRiVE Discovery Lab Graduate Student, Spencer Ames, under the supervision of Dr. Meghan Azad, received an honourable mention from the Manitoba Poster Competition for his poster presentation "Investigating the relationship between infant feeding practices and immune biomarkers of one-year-old infants in the CHILD Cohort Study".

Nominated by her graduate students, the Ed Kroeger Mentorship Award, presented by the Health Sciences Graduate Students' Association, recognized Dr. Azad for her excellence and distinction in mentorship, teaching, and research. Noting that "mentorship is a team effort in the THRiVE Discovery Lab", Dr. Azad invited her co-director, Natalie Rodriguez, and Research Associate, Larisa Lotoski, to join her on stage and receive the award.

The Toronto Science Policy Network (TSPN) is a student-run science policy group which provides a platform to learn more about and engage in science policy. As an invited speaker, Dr. Meghan Azad gave a special presentation on Science for Policy: Evidence to Drive Decision-Making, where she shared her experiences and unique insights on the processes of bridging science with policy.

As an invited speaker at the Nutrition in Pregnancy Conference, hosted by Oregon Health & Science University and held Jun 1-3, 2022 in Washington, DC, USA, Dr. Azad gave a presentation on "Mother's Milk & Baby's Bacteria: How Breastfeeding Shapes the Infant Microbiome and Child Health".