What's New in the Science of Human Milk Oligosaccharides: New Research and Future Directions

Dr Lars Bode is a Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Neonatology and the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, the Larsson-Rosenquist Chair of Collaborative Human Milk Research, and the founding Director of the Mother-Milk-Infant Center of Research Excellence (MOMI CORE) and the new Human Milk Institute (HMI) at the University of California, San Diego. 

Currently, Dr Bode is leading a research program dedicated to research on breastfeeding and human milk in general and human milk oligosaccharides in particular. Dr Bode’s main research objectives are to elucidate (i) how milk components are synthesized in the mother’s mammary gland, (ii) how milk composition is affected by external factors such as nutrition, pathogens, or medications, (iii) how milk components affect immediate as well as long-term health and development of infants and mothers, and (iv) how they can serve as natural templates for the development of preventatives, therapeutics, and diagnostics for people of all ages. Dr Bode has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles on human milk oligosaccharides and in 2022, he ranked in the top 0.1% of most highly cited scientists in the world.

Dr Atul Singhal is a Professor of Paediatric Nutrition at UCL GOS Institute of Child Health in London, UK. Dr Singhal graduated in Medicine from the Royal Free Hospital, London in 1986 and has been a consultant in paediatrics since 1998. He was previously, he was the Director and Deputy Director of the Childhood Nutrition Research Centre, UCL Institute of Child Health. 

His broad interests are in paediatric nutrition, but his current research focuses on the influence of early nutrition on long-term health, the effects of nutritional interventions to reduce long-term cardiovascular risk, and nutritional interventions for obesity. Additionally, on dietary intakes of children, and new technologies for dietary intake assessment.