Meghan Azad, PhD

Research summary

Dr. Azad’s research team studies how experiences in utero and during infancy shape lifelong health, focusing on infant growth and resilience in low and middle-income settings, and chronic conditions affecting children worldwide – including asthma, allergies, obesity and diabetes.

Her research program incorporates administrative database studies, human birth cohorts, and collaboration with basic scientists to establish animal models and explore biological mechanisms.

Her current projects focus on maternal nutrition, breastfeeding, human milk composition and the infant microbiome.

Dr. Azad’s ultimate goal is to prevent chronic disease and promote healthy growth through evidence-informed interventions during critical periods of early development.

Dr. Meghan Azad is a professor of pediatrics and child health at the University of Manitoba.

She holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Early Nutrition and the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease and co-directs the Manitoba Interdisciplinary Lactation Centre (MILC).

Her research program is focused on the role of infant nutrition and the microbiome in child growth, development and resilience.

Dr. Azad is the deputy director of the CHILD Cohort Study, a national pregnancy cohort following 3500 children to understand how early life experiences shape lifelong health.

She is leading a clinical trial to improve matching procedures for preterm neonates receiving donor human milk, and directing the new International Milk Composition (IMiC) Consortium.

She is the director of the THRiVE Discovery Lab, which receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the US National Institutes of Health, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dr. Azad has previously served on the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation Executive Council and currently serves on the Advisory Board to the Canadian Breastfeeding Research Network. She also serves on the joint US/Canada Human Milk Composition Initiative. Dr. Azad is a Fellow of the CIFAR Humans and the Microbiome Program and an elected member of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars. 

She received the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation Erlich-Koldovsky Early Career Investigator Award (2018) and the International Human Milk Genomics Mid-Career Investigator Award (2020). She was named among the WXN Canada Top 100 Most Powerful Women (2020) and Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 (2021), and is a recipient of the prestigious Steacie Award for Research in the Natural Sciences (2023) and Gairdner Momentum Award (2024).

Education

Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship in Pediatrics, University of Alberta 

Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Medical Genetics, University of Manitoba

Master of Science in Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene 

Bachelor of Science with Honors in Biochemistry, University of Winnipeg

Awards

2024:

Gairdner Momentum Award

2023:

Steacie Award for Research in the Natural Sciences

2020:

WXN Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award Winner

Ken Hughes Young Investigator Award in Medical Research

Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation Joe Doupe Young Investigator Award

International Milk Genomics Consortium Outstanding Mid-Career Investigator Award

2019:

Terry G. Falconer Memorial Rh Institute Foundation Emerging Research Award

AllerGen NCE Michelle Harkness Mentorship Award for Mentoring Excellence

2018:

International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation (ISRHML) Ehrlich-Koldovsky Award

2017:

University of London 150th Anniversary Prize

CBC Manitoba Future 40 Award recognizing outstanding professional and service contributions

2014:

CIHR Lindau Prize - One of three Canadians nominated to attend the 64th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting

2013-2015:

Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship - Ranked 2nd nationally in the health research stream