Paleo Baby

Megan Sanctuary, MS, PhD candidate, is a student at the University of California, Davis. She is a member of the Milk Group that has been decoding mother’s milk for clues to lasting health for the past decade. She is currently using this basic science information to develop effective clinical interventions. A feature of the evolution of lactation is the explicit development of a symbiotic relationship between microbes and the mammalian host. This relationship is emerging as a key process of proper development. Human milk feeds and guides the colonization of the infant gut microbiota and nourishes the phenotypic state and metabolic processes of bacteria evolved to this unusual ecological niche. A milk-oriented microbiota (MOM) sets the infant up for a lifetime of health. The crosstalk between maternal milk and the infant gut has been the focus of research of an interdisciplinary and highly integrated team, the Milk Group, at UC Davis, for the past decade. Megan's group have used the insights gained