About Me

Anita Kozyrskyj is Principal Investigator of SyMBIOTA (Synergy in Microbiota), one of 7 CIHR funded Canadian human microbiome team grants, which is studying the impact of maternal and infant antibiotic use, birth mode and breastfeeding on the composition of the intestinal microbiota in 3,500 infants enrolled in the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD, PI: Malcolm Sears) cohort at 4 sites across Canada. Co-lead by James Scott, the team will determine whether changes in infant gut microbiota are associated with the development of overweight, allergy and asthma in children. Study objectives will be achieved through the linkage of detailed data on antibiotic use from prescription databases and birth records to microbiota profiles. Preliminary data on 24 infants was published in February 2013 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23401405). The team are now evaluating microbiota profiles of over 200 infants at the Winnipeg, Vancouver and Edmonton CHILD sites.

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Teaching

Co-Principal Investigator, SyMBIOTA: James Scott, University of Toronto

SyMBIOTA coordinator: Sarah Bridgman

Postdoctoral fellow: Meghan Azad

Research associate: Angela Chow

Research assistant: Farzana Yasmin

MSc student: Rose Kalu