The University of California, San Diego has launched a historic achievement with a new Human Milk Institute (HMI) facility.
This building is built to accelerate scientific research in regard to the nature, biology, and therapeutic potential contained in human milk.
According to UCSD, the research will be looking into how human milk can treat infant and adult diseases. The Human Milk Institute is being recognized as the first kind of human milk-related research institute.
Lars Bode, PhD, professor of pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine and the HMI’s founding director, says that they will utilize clinical care to the best of their scientific ability in order to educate on the subject.
“Physicians and scientists at UC San Diego and elsewhere have been doing this work for a while, but largely isolated in their respective fields of interest,” said Lars Bode, PhD. “With the novel, comprehensive approach of the Human Milk Institute at UC San Diego, we have an opportunity to learn, coordinate and interact in a single, go-to place, and be able to speak with one voice. Research can inform clinical care, clinical care can inform research and both can help educate.”
Gabriel Haddad, MD, chair of the Department of Pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine, added that this institute launch is coming at a time period where patients and new parents often ask medics many questions regarding human milk.
“Pediatricians are regularly asked about human milk by patients and new parents. In the past, we haven’t always been able to provide answers with evidence-based data,” said Gabriel Haddad, MD, chair of the Department of Pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “With the continuing work of the HMI, we can confidently provide guidance based on science, much of it discovered at UC San Diego.”
