Tim Oberlander BC Children’s Hospital

Dr. Tim Oberlander is a Developmental Paediatrician physician-scientist whose work bridges developmental neurosciences and community child health. As a clinician he works with the Complex Pain Service at BC Children’s Hospital and the Sunny Hill Acute Rehab Unit, and has a particular interest in managing pain in children with developmental disabilities. As a researcher his work focuses on understanding how early life experiences, related to in utero exposure to antidepressants and maternal depressed mood, shapes stress reactivity during childhood and contribute to pathways that shape the early origins of self-regulation. His work provides strong evidence that exposure to both prenatal maternal mood and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants influence child behavior in ways that reflect a remarkable capacity for plasticity and demonstrate that even in the face of adversity, some children do very well. His work is driven by curiosity to understand how and why this happens, and a determination to identify modifiable factors that can improve developmental health.

Bernard Thébaud University of Ottawa

Dr Bernard Thébaud is a clinician-scientist with a focus on the clinical translation of stem cell-based and gene therapies for lung diseases. He is a senior scientist with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and a neonatologist with the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, providing care to critically ill newborns. He is also a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Ottawa.

Dr. Thébaud obtained his MD at the University Louis Pasteur in France and trained in Pediatrics and Neonatology at the University Paris V, where he obtained his MSc and PhD. He then completed a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Thébaud studies the mechanisms of lung development, injury and repair in order to design new treatments for incurable lung diseases. His focus is on answering clinically relevant questions for translation into real-life applications. He is now translating innovative cell and gene therapies from the lab into patients to improve outcomes.

Dr. Thébaud has participated on numerous peer reviews committees and scientific advisory boards at the international, national and provincial level, including CIHR and NIH. Dr. Thébaud holds the University of Ottawa Partnership Research Chair in Regenerative Medicine. His research is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and the Stem Cell Network.

Sandy Davidge

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Cathy Vaillancourt

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John Krzeczkowski

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Deborah O’Connor University of Toronto

Deborah (Debbie) O’Connor PhD RD is the Earle W. McHenry Professor and Chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto, and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Human Milk and Infant Nutrition. She also holds scientific appointments in the Translational Medicine Program at The Hospital for Sick Children, and the Department of Pediatrics at Sinai Health. At SickKids, she served as Director of Clinical Dietetics and Breastfeeding Support from 2000 to 2012 and then as Associate Chief of Academic and Professional Practice until 2013. She was the inaugural Chair of the Advisory Board for the Rogers Hixon Ontario Human Milk Bank. Dr. O’Connor’s research program focuses on factors that impact human milk composition and early enteral feeding strategies for hospitalized infants to support optimal nutrition, growth, and neurodevelopment including use of donor human milk and nutrient fortification of milk. Additionally she is investigating the contribution of bacterial biosynthesis of folate in the colon to the folate status of humans.

Dr. O’Connor is currently or was a recent member of several national and international committees and working groups, including the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada Nutrition Practice Guidelines, US-Canada Governments Joint Dietary Reference Intake Working Group on Chronic Disease Endpoints, US National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Exploration of New Evidence for Nutrition during Pregnancy and Lactation, the NIH’s Breastmilk Ecology: Genesis of Infant Nutrition (BEGIN) Project, and the World Health Organization Guideline Development Group on Human Milk Banking.

Marie-Claire Arrieta University of Calgary

Dr. Marie-Claire Arrieta is an Associate Professor and Research Excellence Chair in Cumming School of Medicine of the University of Calgary. Her research examines the interactions between the early-life gut microbiome and infant development. Her research program conducts clinical and experimental research, aiming to understand the mechanisms behind humans and microbiome communication. Her contributions as first or senior author have been published in leading journals, and her work has been recognized with the CIHR-Sick Kids New Investigator Award, the Killam Emerging Research Leader Award and an invitation join the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada.

Dr. Arrieta is co-author of the best-selling public book, Let Them Eat Dirt, and is involved in several science communication initiatives, including public talks, a second book and a documentary film project about the microbiome.

Marie-Claire Arrieta University of Calgary

Dr. Marie-Claire Arrieta is an Associate Professor and Research Excellence Chair in Cumming School of Medicine of the University of Calgary. Her research examines the interactions between the early-life gut microbiome and infant development. Her research program conducts clinical and experimental research, aiming to understand the mechanisms behind humans and microbiome communication. Her contributions as first or senior author have been published in leading journals, and her work has been recognized with the CIHR-Sick Kids New Investigator Award, the Killam Emerging Research Leader Award and an invitation join the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada.

Dr. Arrieta is co-author of the best-selling public book, Let Them Eat Dirt, and is involved in several science communication initiatives, including public talks, a second book and a documentary film project about the microbiome.

Anick Bérard

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Mark Walker

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Celline Brasil

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Rhonda Bell

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Emily Fleming

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Luwana Listener

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Jess Hercus

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Jade Gamelin Kao University of Ottawa

Jade is currently a 4th year undergraduate student in Translational and Molecular Medicine and a 1st year Master’s student in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Jade is perusing her Master’s at the Placenta Lab under the supervision of Dr. Shannon Bainbridge-Whiteside, studying the impact of maternal obesity on fetal programming and cardiometabolic health.

Yusmaris Cariaco University of Ottawa

Yusmaris Cariaco is a postdoctoral fellow at uOttawa since February 2022. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees in Applied Immunology and Parasitology from the Federal University of Uberlândia in Brazil. She is interested in investigating how pregnancy related diseases affect placental health and fetal growth. Her current research at the Bainbridge Lab focuses on studying how opioid and cannabis consumption influences fetal growth trajectories.

Rewa Zurub University of Ottawa

I am a first year PhD student at the University of Ottawa in the Faculty of Medicine. My project focuses on evaluating the presences and accumulation of Microplastics in the human placenta within a Canadian context.

Alyx Orieux University of Saskatchewan

Alyx Orieux is a current 3rd year medical student at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine. She has previously earned a master’s degree in Public Health and bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia. Alyx is interested in reproductive health and has been involved in PlGF research in Saskatchewan since 2022.

Timothy Nunes University of Western

Timothy Nunes is an MSc candidate studying under Dr. Timothy Regnault and Dr. Patti Kiser at the University of Western Ontario. He is fascinated by the developmental origins of non-communicable diseases, and has previously investigated the influence of maternal malnourishment-induced fetal growth restriction on white matter microglia morphological changes with aging. His current project explores the effects of lifelong maternal Western Diet on placental metabolomics and placental vascularization.

Thomas Kenney University of Lethbridge

I am a 2nd year Neuroscience masters student at the University of Lethbridge studying under the supervision of Dr. Gerlinde Metz and Tony Montina.

Adam Hung BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute

I am currently a PhD student in Dr. Angela Devlin’s lab at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute in Vancouver, British Columbia. I graduated with a Bachelor’s of Medical Science with a major in Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. My PhD research focuses on the relationship between one-carbon nutrients, namely folic acid and riboflavin, and developmental programming with a focus on placental development.

Olivia Sadilek-Thring University of Alberta

Mild to severe deficiencies in micronutrients can result in pathological cascades that may have serious consequences for human health and young children are at particularly high risk of micronutrient deficiencies due to the increased metabolic demands imposed by growth and development processes. It is important that more be known about the mechanistic basis of simultaneous micronutrient deficiencies in order to effectively treat or prevent their effects, especially within at-risk demographic populations. I am currently pursuing a M.Sc. in Physiology at the University of Alberta, and I am co-supervised by Dr. Robin Clugston and Dr. Stephane Bourque.

Sara-Pier Paquet

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Delaney Barth

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Constantin R Popescu

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Abiola Adeniyi University of British Columbia

Abiola A Adeniyi is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Global Maternal and Child Health at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, UBC Vancouver. Her research interests include the Maternal and child health including oral health, and the social determinants of health. Her research studies have employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Rachel Dadouch McMaster University

Rachel Dadouch is a postdoctoral fellow at McMaster University in the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She completed her PhD at the University of Toronto, where she explored the communication issues in obesity-in-pregnancy clinical encounters, and led other projects in this area such as the development of a core outcome set.

Jelena Komanchuk University of British Columbia

Dr. Jelena Komanchuk is a pediatric Registered Nurse and completed her PhD in Nursing at the University of Calgary in 2023. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of British Columbia in the Okanagan, and is investigating the sleep health of children in foster and kinship car in British Columbia. She is presenting findings from her doctoral randomized controlled trial evaluation of a digital parenting program, First Pathways, with families who are often underserved with traditional in-person services.

Amanda Rowlands Simon Fraser University

Amanda is currently a PhD candidate in the Maternal and Child Health Lab in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. She joined the Maternal and Child Health lab in 2018, and began her PhD research in 2020. Her current research focuses on how stress, metabolic energy, and sleep patterns have an effect reproductive development among adolescent girls. She works with data and bio-specimen samples collected as part of Dr. Pablo Nepomnaschy’s Society, Environment, and Reproduction study, a longitudinal study that has been collaborating with women in Guatemala since 2000.

Christina Cantin Queens University

Christina Cantin is a Perinatal Consultant with the Champlain Maternal Newborn Regional Program. In this role, Christina contributes to the promotion of optimum perinatal care by sharing skills and knowledge with perinatal colleagues in the eastern and southeastern region, as well as at the provincial and national level. Perinatal mental health, addictions, and substance use health are the major foci of her work with partner organizations, promoting evidence-based care and adoption of best practice standards. Christina is providing nursing expertise and leadership for national, provincial, and regional perinatal mental health initiatives. Christina is in the fourth year of PhD in Nursing program at Queen’s University. The focus of her dissertation research is to explore and develop evidence regarding the impact of breastfeeding among infants in the first 31 days of life who were exposed to in-utero selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) medication.