Grant: DRA: Canada Impact+ Research Training Awards - Doctoral

"Mother’s milk is more than just food. It also has good bacteria for babies. These bacteria help keep babies healthy, with some living in their tummies to fight diseases. Some bacteria from milk stay in the baby’s tummy, but others don’t. We are interested in looking at the bacteria that don’t stay in baby’s tummy. This research will be the first ever study to understand the milk bacteria that do not settle in the baby’s tummy and their role in child health. Do these bacteria help babies grow? Do they help other bacteria that stay in the tummy fight asthma? We will study bacteria in mother’s milk and baby’s poop to find out. We will look at samples from 1200 mothers and their babies. We have access to these samples from a big study that took place in Canada, named CHILD. We will compare the bacteria in milk and poop samples. This way we can find out which ones do not stay in baby’s tummy. Then, we plan to look at what compounds these bacteria might make. Our goal is to look into all these factors to know how these bacteria help babies stay healthy. This will help us learn if and how these bacteria help babies fight asthma. This research can help inform mothers about how to favor good bacteria in their milk. It can also encourage breastfeeding by knowing more about its benefits. In the future, it might even help us make new products for babies who are not breastfed. "