Current Positions

Canada Research Chair, Developmental Origins of Chronic Disease
Associate Professor, Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba
Director of Science & Knowledge Mobilization, THRiVE Discovery Lab
Research Scientist, Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba
Co-Director, Manitoba Interdisciplinary Lactation Centre (MILC)
Scientific Director, International Milk Composition (IMiC) Consortium
Deputy Director, CHILD Cohort Study
CIFAR Fellow, Humans & the Microbiome Program

Education

PhD, Biochemistry and Medical Genetics (University of Manitoba)
MSc Epidemiology (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK)
BSc Honours, Biochemistry (University of Winnipeg)
Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, Pediatrics and Epidemiology (University of Alberta)

Research Focus

Dr. Azad and the THRiVE Discovery Lab study how early-life exposures and experiences shape lifelong health. Our current research is focused on the role of maternal nutrition, infant feeding and human milk composition in growth and development during infancy and childhood.
Our team is transdisciplinary, combining expertise in molecular biology, epidemiology, statistics, nutrition, microbiome and maternal-child health. We collaborate and use model systems, clinical cohorts, and administrative databases to study DOHaD in cells, animals and human populations.

Research Interests

- The Multi-omic Milk (MuMi) Study: Leveraging the IMiC Platform and the CHILD Cohort to study human milk as a biological system and understand its composition, determinants and impacts on child health
- Lactation and innate immunity among mothers in the CHILD cohort
- Role of infant feeding practices in the development and prevention of chronic disease (allergies, asthma, obesity)
- Matching Donor Human Milk on Maternal Secretor Status (MMOMSS): optimizing the prebiotic profile of donor human milk for preterm infants (pilot RCT)
- Stakeholder engagement to inform strategies for improving breastfeeding education in Manitoba schools
- Causational roles of the gut microbiome in childhood asthma: leveraging the CHILD cohort study
- DenBalo: Describing and comparing microbiome, immune system and breastmilk component development in pre-and full-term infants in urban Burkina Faso