Sanoji Wijenayake
Title: Canada Research Chair in Milk Nanovesicles and Applied Health, Assistant Professor
Phone: 204-258-3894
Office: 2RC023
Building: Richardson College for the Environment and Science Complex
Email: s.wijenayake@uwinnipeg.ca
Research Interests:
Maternal obesity is a major public health concern. In Canada, 22-24 % of women are annually diagnosed with overweight or obesity at the time of conception and this percentage extends to more than 50 % in the US.
This means that a large percentage of infants born in North America are exposed to maternal obesity during critical periods of early development (in utero and after-birth) with long-lasting health complications.
Exclusive feeding of maternal milk via the breast/chest for at least the first 6 months of life reduce the risk of developing metabolic disorder in children. However, the biologically active molecules in milk that provide these protective benefits need to be identified and characterized.
Dr. Wijenayake studies one of these biologically active milk compounds, called milk-derived extracellular vesicles (MEVs). One can think of MEVs as emails. Like emails transporting information, MEVs transport biological material, such as microRNA, lipids, and peptides, from mother to offspring. MEVs are produced by most mammals and present in colostrum, transition, and mature milk. MEV transfer is a critical post-partum crosstalk that is understudied, especially within the context of understanding how maternal health shape offspring health.
Long-term Objectives:
- Understand how biological nanovesicles in milk, called “milk-derived extracellular vesicles (MEVs), regulate neonatal development, metabolism, and immunity.
- Explore if MEVs provide survival benefits to children, especially sick children.
Current Themes:
- Explore MEV uptake across different cells of the neonatal brain and the adult brain.
- Are there sex effects in uptake and localization of MEVs in the neonatal brain?
- Does maternal obesity and other early life stress impact MEV biology?
- What are the functional outcomes of MEV uptake om offspring?
- Is MEV cargo sensitive to maternal stress? Obesity, psychosocial health?
- Can MEVs remediate the outcomes of neonatal gestational stress like obesity, diabetes, inflammation, and immune dysfunction?
Translational Goals:
- Enrich infant formula with MEVs to improve the bioactive properties.
- Equitability in access to early life nutrition.
- Bioengineer and scale up MEVs to be better drug carriers than synthetic liposomes.
- Bioengineer MEV cargo and deliver targeted therapies for neonatal and adult diseases.
- Necrotizing enterocolitis
- Childhood obesity and metabolic dysfunction
- Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease
Currently accepting undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows.
Publications: