March 1, 2025 

March is nationally known as Nutrition Month, and we want to acknowledge all the amazing work that registered dieticians (including our very own Miliku Lab RD - Maurya (MSc Student)) bring to the food environment to ensure the well-being of Canadians. This year, the Dietitians of Canada announced the theme of Nourish to Flourish, which highlights the profound connections between food and overall well-being, emphasizing the transformative role of nutrition in our lives.

Have a look at these interactive toolkits to learn more about RDs, meal planning, and physiological wellbeing:

• https://www.dietitians.ca/getattachment/Advocacy/Nutrition-Month-2025/Nutrition-Month-2025-General-toolkit/General-Toolkit-(8-5-x-16-in).pdf.aspx?lang=en-CA 

• https://www.dietitians.ca/Advocacy/Nutrition-Month-2025/Nutrition-Month-2025-Physiological-Wellbeing-T-(1).aspx 

December 23, 2024 

As our lab wraps up another successful and productive year, we wish the members of our research community and collaborators warm and relaxing winter holidays. Here is to a new year, filled with new opportunities, continued collaborations, and fruitful endeavours. May 2025 bring growth, inspiration and success to all!

Photo description: Secret Santa Exchange 2024

Left to right: Bryshan, Sofia, Maurya, Dr Miliku, Tuka, Sara, Howard, Shreya

November 2, 2024 

Dr. Miliku was invited to speak at the 2024 Food as Medicine Update Meeting. This year’s theme was “Nutrition from Womb to Tomb: Healthy Beginnings to Vibrant Endings”, and the meeting was held at the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus. With an audience majority of physicians, healthcare professionals and medical trainees, Dr. Miliku’s talk titled “The Critical Role of Prenatal Nutrition in Shaping Child Health: A DOHaD Perspective” highlighted the importance of parental diet during periconception in offspring chronic disease prevention. 
See the conference program here: https://foodasmedicineupdate.ca/index.php/conference/program  

October 24, 2024 

Tomorrow, Dr. Miliku will be delivering a webinar for the BOLD IDEAS: Colloquium Series, titled “What About the Fathers? Unraveling the Paternal Contribution to the Developmental Origins of Offspring Cardiovascular Health”.

https://umanitoba.zoom.us/j/67906733768? pwd=K2JtMnFoMWhNZVNobU5ERytQV1VGZz09

Meeting ID: 679 0673 3768
Passcode: 179851

Read her abstract here: https://eventscalendar.umanitoba.ca/site/healthsciences/event/bold-ideas-colloquium-series---what-about-fathers-unraveling-the-paternal-contribution-to-the-developmental-origins-of-offspring-cardiovascular-health/ 

September 27, 2024 

Please join us on October 11, 2024 where Howard will be presenting this work thus far on ultra-processed food intake among Canadian children and their associations with obesity development. This is an invited talk hosted by DOHaD Canada Trainee Development Committee (TDC).

https://ucalgary.zoom.us/j/9723170 5016?from=addon
Meeting ID: 972 3170 5016 

Looking forward to your talk Howard!

Are you a member of DOHaD Canada and would be interest in giving a virtual seminar? Learn more about how you can be involved here: https://dohad.utoronto.ca/trainee_development_committee_seminar/ 

August 30, 2024

Sara (Undergrad Student) was a successful applicant in the competitive and unique research program offered by the Department of Physiology, in collaboration with the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. This year, the week-long program was held in Toronto, where Sara joined other trainees in learning about developmental biology from both basic science and clinical perspectives. Sara presented one of her semester projects, co-supervised by Howard (PhD Student). 

More info about the program: https://physiology.utoronto.ca/international-exchange-developmental-and-perinatal-biology 

Congratulations Sara!

Sara Mousavi: “Preschool ultra-processed food intake is associated with obesity-related asthma phenotype at age five: the CHILD Cohort Study”

August 14, 2024

This past week, our amazing undergraduate summer students presented their oral presentations in requirement for the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) in the Department of Nutritional Sciences. Everyone gave a great talk about their productive summer work. 

Sara Mousavi received the UROP award for Best Presentation in Clinical Nutrition/Public Health Nutrition!

The Miliku Lab is proud of all of our summer students.

Sara Mousavi: “Childhood Ultra-Processed Food Intake and Blood Pressure”

Tuka Alghazawi: “Understanding the role of obesity in the sex shift in asthma during puberty: the CHILD Cohort Study”

Hillary Lo: “The longitudinal associations between dairy intake and cardiovascular health in preschool and school-age children: the CHILD Cohort Study”

July 5, 2024

This past week, Dr. Miliku and Howard (PhD Student) attended NUTRITION 2024, hosted by the American Society for Nutrition, held between June 29 – July 2 at Chicago, USA. Dr. Miliku gave an oral talk while Howard presented a poster at this international conference.

Howard’s conference was supported by the Household Sciences and Nutritional Sciences Alumni Association Travel Award 2024, where he placed first in the competition!

Dr. Miliku: “Don’t Forget the Fathers! Preconception Paternal Diet is Associated with Offspring Growth”. Published in Curr Dev Nutr (doi:10.1016/j.cdnut.2024.103144)

Howard Chen: “Sex-Driven Associations of Ultra-Processed Food Intake and Adiposity Indicators in Early-Childhood: the CHILD Cohort Study”. Published in Curr Dev Nutr (doi:10.1016/j.cdnut.2024.103321)

Conference info: https://nutrition.org/n24/ 

May 8, 2024

The Miliku Lab would like to congratulate Sara Mousavi and Sofia Hempelmann Perez for their honorable mentions in the 2024 Sears Studentship Competition! They scored highly in this competition and was mentioned in the CHILD Study newsletter. We look forward to their research results this summer.

Read about it: https://childcohortstudy.createsend1.com/t/i-e-aujhuid-tylklhhkjd-r/ 

Award info: https://childstudy.ca/sears-award/ 

March 14, 2024

We are excited for Antonio’s (MSc Student) oral presentation tomorrow on his current research investigating paternal dietary patterns and offspring growth trajectories. We look forward to all the feedback he will receive from fellow researchers at the 71st Annual Scientific Meeting of Society for Reproductive Investigation, held in Vancouver, Canada from March 12-16. Come join us if you are attending this amazing conference!

Antonio Rossi: “Paternal Preconception Adherence to a Prudent Diet Pattern: a Shield Against Rapid Child Growth”

Conference info: https://www.sri-online.org/events/2024

January 2, 2024

 “Let’s be Precise: The Future of Child Health” conference will be held at the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning from January 29-31 in Toronto, Canada! This is a highly anticipated event featuring world-renowned researchers highlighting advances in precision medicine and results from large international cohorts. It is also a great opportunity to network with CHILD Study site leaders and learn more about the novel work coming out of the largest pregnancy cohort in Canada. Last but not least, Dr. Milliku will be delivering a talk on POHaD! 

Don’t miss out on an amazing event to start the new years. 

More details: https://cvent.me/4LN7nl  

UPDATE: February 5, 2024

The conference was a huge success, filled with talks on understanding childhood asthma, gut microbiome, environmental exposures, and much more! A lot of advances in precision medicine was accomplished using the CHILD and international cohorts. Read more about the conference highlights here: https://childstudy.ca/symposium-spotlights-cohorts/  

September 29, 2023

Just released today, the Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition interviewed and spotlight Dr. Miliku’s work in an online article posted on the Temerty Faculty of Medicine website. Read all about it here: https://childnutrition.utoronto.ca/news/new-faculty-bring-varied-expertise-lawson-centre-child-nutrition  

June 27, 2023

Today, Dr. Miliku presented a poster at the International Conference on Diet and Activity Methods 2023 Meeting, held between June 26-29 at Limerick, Ireland. This novel work is a team effort lead by Antonio (MSc Student) and Audrey (PhD Student – McGill University) on validating an AI-assisted tool to assess adolescent dietary intake. Job well done everyone!

Dr. Miliku: “Measuring diet intake in healthy adolescents: relative validation of an artificial intelligence-enhanced, image-assisted mobile application in the CHILD Cohort Study”

Conference info: https://isdamportal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/icdam_2023_program.pdf  

May 23, 2023

Recently, Dr. Miliku gave an invited oral presentation at the 2023 DOHaD Canada Meeting. She opened the “Diet/Nutrition” Session with her talk titled “Preschool dietary patterns in Canadian Children and their role in cardiometabolic disease development”. 

Conference info: https://dohad.utoronto.ca/2023meeting/ 

March 31, 2023

As part of the thesis program in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, all graduate students must present an annual seminar to the faculty and members of the department. In the past two weeks, Howard and Antonio each gave an amazing presentation and answered all the questions nicely. A major milestone accomplished! 

Very proud of our MSc Students!

Wrapping up the academic year, DNS also invited Dr. Miliku to give a seminar on her research program as a new PI in the department. 

November 18, 2022

Today, Howard and Antonio (MSc Students) presented their very first poster at the SMART Healthy Cities Conference 2022, held between November 17-18 at Ottawa, Canada. A major milestone accomplished, they learned a lot about implementation science and sustainability in healthy cities design. As holders of the SMART Training Platform Award, Howard and Antonio will be prospective leaders in improving nutrition and food environment of Canada. 

Howard and Antonio were supported by the SMART Travel Bursary.

Howard Chen: “Moderate adherence to a prudent diet pattern is associated with lower blood pressure at the age of five: the CHILD Study”
Antonio Rossi: “Prenatal paternal BMI is associated with offspring BMI trajectories from birth until the age of five years: the CHILD Cohort Study”

Conference info: https://smart-training.ca/first-annual-healthy-cities-conference/ 

May 10, 2022

On May 12, Dr. Miliku is invited to give a seminar talk titled “Somatic Growth Patterns and Asthma Development: The CHILD Cohort Study”. This presentation is part of the Center for Metabolism, Obesity and Diabetes Research (MODR) Seminar Series hosted by McMaster University.