The University of Manitoba will be receiving more than $1.1 million in support of seven projects funded by CFI, Dr. Meghan Azad and Dr. Nathan Nickel's project "Manitoba Interdisciplinary Lactation Center (MILC): a provincial infant feeding database and human milk biorepository" is one of the successfully funded projects. 

Click HERE to read about all seven projects. 

A summary of the article “Composition and Variation of the Human Milk Microbiota Are Influenced by Maternal and Early-Life Factors” has been written to feature in the Research Highlights section of Nature Medicine, which brings interesting research papers to the attention of our readers. 

We are seeking a full time Research Associate and a Full Time Data Manager / Analyst. 
Click HERE for details.

​Azad lab participated in the #SNPSTEPS19 challenge (OC-SNP National Pedometer Challenge) and was ranked third (bronze medal) among the Manitoba chapter participating teams, with a total amount of 563,342 steps. Congratulations Azad Lab!

​On the evening of January 29, 2019, at the Gala event of AllerGen’s final Research Conference, Dr. Meghan Azad was recognized for her excellence as mentor (nominated by her trainees) and received the Michelle Harkness Mentorship Awards in the category of Mentoring Excellence – Investigator

Michelle La, from the Azad Lab, received ​The Emerging Leader Award (ELA) from the University of Manitoba. This award recognizes the outstanding contributions that students make to the enhancement of the institution and the community. It recognizes students who are committed to contributing to the social, cultural or economic well-being of communities on and/or off campus, while encouraging cross cultural understanding and demonstrating sustained leadership and initiative that is worthy of recognition. We are so proud of Michelle! 

#LACTFACT
The bacteria in breastmilk is different for women who exclusively pump vs women who directly breastfeed, possibly influencing the health of the infant.
Composition and Variation of the Human Milk Microbiota Are Influenced by Maternal and Early-Life Factors
Cell Host and Microbe 25, 324-335 February 13, 2019

Dr. Moossavi and Dr. Azad spoke with The National Post about their new paper in Cell Host & Microbe. The research was also reported by CTV, Insider, and CBC’s Quirks & Quarks (click here for the full interview).

CLICK HERE view the article published in Cell Host & Microbe.

Our latest research was published this week in Cell Host & Microbe. In this study, led by Azad Lab PhD student Shirin Moossavi, we analyzed the milk microbiota of 393 mothers from the CHILD cohort. We found that the milk microbiota is highly variable between different mothers and the composition was associated with maternal factors as well as breastfeeding practices (direct nursing at the breast, or pumping and feeding breast milk from a bottle). We also found that some of the associations were dependent on the infant sex.  Read the full article here.

​The final AllerGen NCE Scientific Conference is being held this week in Toronto, and today’s program was entirely dedicated to the CHILD Study! Dr. Azad spoke about the unique elements of the CHILD Manitoba site (our rural sub-cohort and DXA body composition assessments) and Chaired a session about the CHILD Knowledge Mobilization Stakeholder Advisory Committee. Azad Lab trainees Kozeta Miliku & Deborah Chan gave their 1-minute lightning round presentations. It was an exciting day of presentations about the past and future of CHILD, including a session with four CHILD families from across the country.