​Our student Linda Lam received the received the BSc Med Program Award for Outstanding Clinical Research Project. Linda spent two summers with our lab and TMPLR Study examining the developmental origins of bone health. Her award-winning project is entiled: “Breastfeeding and Bone Mineral Density in Adulthood: The Manitoba Personalized Lifestyle Research Study”. Well done, Linda!

Our postdoc Kozeta Miliku published a review with Dr. Azad on "Breastfeeding and Developmental Origins of Asthma: Current Evidence, Possible Mechanisms, and Future Research Priorities" in Nutrients. Check it out HERE.

Our PhD student Shirin Moossavi and co-authors have published a new review in the Frontiers in Pediatrics Special Issue on Human Milk Composition and Health Outcomes in Children. The Prebiotic and Probiotic Properties of Human Milk: Implications for infant Immune Development and Pediatric Asthma. Check it out HERE. 

Just in time for World Breastfeeding Week, we are excited to share our new paper on “Protecting, Promoting and Supporting Breastfeeding on Instagram”, published today in Maternal and Child Nutrition. This study was a collaboration with colleagues at the University of Alberta Health Law Institute. We systematically analyzed over 4000 images and 8000 comments to see how breastfeeding is discussed and portrayed on Instagram. Read the full paper HERE.

We are excited to launch our Azad Lab Logo, designed by the amazing Pat Faucher, Creative & Strategic Services Lead at the George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation.

The bloom is the quintessential sign of spring, of early life, and innovation; each petal representing a step in development; together, their round form alluding to our lifecycle.
The overlapping semi-transparent petals are an allegory to the team’s core principles of collaboration across specialties, the mosaic of expertise required to understand how each part contributes to the whole, and the need to be inclusive of all identities as part of our research.
The bloom also speaks to the notion of flora, the gut microbiota that so greatly influences our health, which is ever so important in the early years of life.
The rounded shape encircling the ‘lab’ represents the coming together of our expertise, the safe space where students can grow and share their ideas in preperation of their own careers blossoming and branching out.
Negative space between the petals and the round lab creates the silhouette of a breast and nipple. While not the sole focus of our work, we are learning how influential breastmilk can be to early development and the gut flora. It forms part of a much larger whole, and also acknowledges part of the lab’s origin story.

Our study on human milk oligosaccharides was featured in the latest issue of the International Milk Genomics Consortium newsletter, SPLASH!