U of Manitoba breast milk researcher wins $6.5M grant to 'take a deep view of milk'

A University of Manitoba researcher has landed a $6.5 million grant to advance her studieson the benefits of breast milk.

Meghan Azadsaid the money, which comes from theBill and Melinda Gates Foundation,is like winning the lottery.

"It's a lot of money. It will allow us to do some really intensive research," said Azad, an assistant professor at the university and a research scientist at the Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba.

"I mean over the last five years I've been fortunate to get funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Research Manitoba and a few other sources and am super grateful for that. To be honest I wouldn't be here without it. It's that research that got me noticed by the Gates Foundation."

Watch Meghan Azad explain how breast milk research will help babies grow:

Breast milk researcher gets $6.5M

5 years ago

Duration 3:15

A University of Manitoba researcher has landed a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation worth $6.5 million for her studies on the benefits of breast milk.

The Gatesgrant will helpestablish a new global health initiative dedicated to breast milkthe International Milk CompositionConsortiumfor which Azad will serve as director.

The consortium will bring together five research groups studying maternal nutrition and infant growth in five countries around the world, including Tanzania, Pakistan, Nepal, Burkina Faso and Canada.

It will also include human milk scientists and data scientists who will analyze breast milk for its nutritional and non-nutritional components, including carbs, protein,fat, vitamins and minerals, prebiotic sugars, hormones, antibodies and growth factors.

"This is going to allow us to really take a deep view of milk," Azad said.

"My prior studies and most other prior studies in breast milk really focus on an individual component, one at a time, but I think what is always missing is the fact that all these components are present in breast milk at the same time.

"So it would really be best to study them all together."

Breast milk is fundamentally important to infant health but surprisingly little is known about its composition and its variation around the world, she noted.

"This is a food that's evolved for millions of years, specifically to feed human babies and sustain their lives and yet we know remarkably little about it," Azad said.

"This project will help us learn about how human milk helps human babies develop and grow up healthy."

The research will examine components linked to infant growth and resilience and be critical to understanding why some breastfed infants can still develop infections or struggle to achieve optimal growth, the U of M release states.

That information will help develop maternal and infant nutrition recommendations. It will also be used to design ways to optimizenutrition for infants who cannot be breastfed.

"If we identify a component, or more likely a combination of components, that are really optimal for babies to support growth, then it's possible those might be able to be isolated from milk or even synthesized and provided as supplements to babies if their moms are lacking those components," Azad said.

The research will involve 1,200 mothers and their infants and take place over the next three years.

Information will also be collected about themoms "so we might also find that particular important components [of the milk] can increased by eating a certain diet or changing your lifestyle in a certain way," Azad said.