Interview videos highlight CHILD research

A January 2018 video interview with AllerGen investigator Dr. Meghan Azad, entitled “Meghan Azad on Studying Chronic Diseases in Children” and produced by the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity (HCEO) Global Working Group, explores Dr. Azad’s work on the developmental origins of disease in children, touching on the influence of maternal and infant nutrition, including breastfeeding, and the role of the infant gut microbiome.

In the video, Dr. Azad underlines the value of longitudinal studies in general and of the CHILD Study in particular.

In “Why does breast milk matter?,” a video produced by the Canadian Lung Association and published in November 2017, Dr. Azad discusses her current CHILD-based research into the impact of breastfeeding on child health—and on asthma risk in particular. She elaborates on the three main questions her project is addressing: Can breastfeeding help prevent asthma in children? What is the role of the milk microbiome in this process? And: What can mothers do to optimize the composition of their milk microbiome and maximize the health benefits of breastfeeding for their children?

Along the way, Dr. Azad describes the CHILD Study, from which her research leverages data and biological samples. The video also features footage of a young CHILD subject undergoing a clinical assessment as part of her participation in the Study.

This research of Dr. Azad’s is supported by an AllerGen co-funded Emerging Research Leaders Initiative (ERLI) award.

In a third recent video, “Antibiotics Early in Life Alter Colonization and Predispose to Obesity,” produced by the Nestlé Nutrition Institute, Dr. Azad speaks about another area of her work that has been informed by CHILD research: the impact of early-life exposure to antibiotics on the gut microbiome, and associated health outcomes—especially predisposition to obesity.