Quarterly Highlights: July to September 2019

In the News

Laura Anderson (Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact) spoke to CTV News about her research linking pancreatic cancer and obesity in teens and early adulthood.

Discover Magazine interviewed Jonathan Schertzer (Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences) about a study that suggests an infusion of gut bacteria might hold promise for treating cardiovascular conditions.

Gregory Steinberg (Medicine) was interviewed by CBC for a national story on how lost weight comes back.

A study by Eileen Hutton (Midwifery) that showed that low risk pregnant women who intend to give birth at home have no increased chance of the baby’s perinatal or neonatal death compared to other low risk women who intend to give birth in a hospital was widely promoted in the national and international media. Some of the media outlets included Voice of America, The Spectator, CTV News, Daily Mail (UK) and CHML News. The results have been published by The Lancet’s EClinicalMedicine journal.

Katherine Morrison (Pediatrics/McMaster Centre for Metobolism, Obesity and Diabetes Research) spoke to Global News about why the body mass index (BMI) needs context when used as a measurement of health.

Brian Timmons (Pediatrics) talked about the importance of nutrition knowledge being part of a young athlete’s development from an early age at Outside online.

Five professors of the Faculty of Health Sciences have been elected fellows of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, considered one of the highest honours for members of the country’s health sciences community. Read More

Presentations and Publications

Diana Sherifali (Nursing) spoke at the Benefits Canada 2019 Chronic Disease at Work conference about the importance of conceptualizing healthy behavior and breaking down the complexity of behaviours into small simple habits people can adopt. 

Dr. Brian Timmons and CanChild colleagues published “Physical activity and trajectories of cardiovascular health indicators during early childhood” in the journal Pediatrics.

Russell de Souza (Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact) answers the question “what’s more important weight loss or improving your diet as you age” for Everything Zoomer Magazine.

Celebrations & Successes

Dr. Patrick McPhee, a postdoctoral fellow working with Dr. Katherine Morrison, has been awarded a Michael DeGroote Fellowship for his work “Understanding determinants of pediatric obesity and related health indicators in a national weight management registry.”

Efrah Yousuf, PhD candidate supervised by Dr. Katherine Morrison, received the HudHud Scholarship For Somali-Canadian Youth.

Basma Ahmed, PhD candidate supervised by Dr. Gregory Steinberg & Dr. Katherine Morrison, received the Lau Family Scholarship for Science and Engineering.

Guillaume Paré (Faculty of Health Sciences) is one of six researchers to receive federal funding for cutting-edge labs and equipment from the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund. His research project is High-throughput whole genome sequencing for improved disease risk prediction.