Researcher Profile

 

• Nutri-CAP: Nutrition for Children, Adolescent girls, and Pregnant women in slums of Dhaka city. Funded by the Global Affairs, Canada.
• The small intestinal microbiota in undernourished women in Bangladesh: identifying causal mechanisms of and therapeutic targets for environmental enteric dysfunction. Funded by NIH, USA
• Follow-up studies to assess morbidity, physical and mental health in participants from the Bangladesh Environmental Enteric Dysfunction (BEED) study who underwent upper-gastrointestinal endoscopy and nutritional intervention.
• Small intestinal microbiota of low body mass index (BMI) & normal BMI women of reproductive age and microbiota-directed complementary food (MDCF) supplementation in maternal environmental enteric dysfunction (EED). Funded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
• Identification of shigella species/serotypes from the MAL-ED study’s shigella-positive specimens. Funded by the University of Virginia
• A multi-country, multi-centre, three-arm, parallel group, open label, randomized trial of three supplements for the nutritional management of moderate wasting in children 6-24 months of age with acute illness. Funded by the World Health Organization.
• Development of Shelf-Stable, Locally-Sourced, Microbiota-Directed Complementary Foods for Children with Undernutrition. Funded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Selected publications include:

• Mahfuz M, Alam MA, Das S, Fahim SM, Hossain MS, Petri WA Jr, Ashorn P, Ashorn U, Ahmed T. Daily Supplementation With Egg, Cow Milk, and Multiple Micronutrients Increases Linear Growth of Young Children with Short Stature. J Nutr. 2020 Feb 1;150(2):394-403. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxz253. PMID: 31665385.
• Mahfuz M, Alam MA, Fahim SM, Hasan SMT, Sarmin M, Das S, Mostofa I, et al. COVID-19 among staff and their family members of a healthcare research institution in Bangladesh between March 2020 and April 2021: a test-negative case–control study BMJ Open 2022;12: e058074. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058074.  
• Mahfuz M, Hossain S, Alam MA, Gazi A, Fahim SM, Nahar B, Ahmed T. Chronic Aflatoxin Exposure and Cognitive and Language Development in Young Children of Bangladesh: A Longitudinal Study. Toxins. 2022; 14 (12):855. 
• Mahfuz M, Hasan SMT, Alam MA, Das S, Fahim SM, Islam MM, Gazi MA, Hossain M, Egner PA, Groopman JD, Ahmed T. Aflatoxin exposure was not associated with childhood stunting: results from a birth cohort study in a resource-poor setting of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Public Health Nutr. 2020 Jul 3:1-10. doi: 10.1017/S1368980020001421.
• Mahfuz M, Murray-Kolb LE, Hasan SMT, Das S, Fahim SM, Alam MA, Caulfield L, Ahmed T. Why Do Children in Slums Suffer from Anemia, Iron, Zinc, and Vitamin A Deficiency? Results from a Birth Cohort Study in Dhaka. Nutrients. 2019 Dec 11;11(12). pii: E3025. doi: 10.3390/nu11123025.
• Mahfuz M, Alam MA, Fahim SM, Gazi MA, Raihan MJ, Hossain M, Egner PA, et al. Aflatoxin exposure in children living in Mirpur, Dhaka: data from MAL-ED companion study. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2018 Sep 5. doi: 10.1038/s41370-018-0066-5.
• Mahfuz M, Das S, Mazumder RN, Rahman M, Haque R, Gordon JI, Ahmed T et al. Bangladesh Environmental Enteric Dysfunction (BEED) study: Protocol for a community-based intervention study to validate non-invasive biomarkers of Environmental Enteric Dysfunction. BMJ Open. 2017 Aug 11;7(8):e017768.
• Mahfuz M, Alam MA, Islam SB, Naila N, Chisti MJ, Alam NH, Sarker SA, Ahmed T. Treatment outcome of children with Persistent Diarrhoea admitted to an Urban Hospital, Dhaka during 2012-2013.  BMC Pediatrics 2017; 17:142.
• Mahfuz M, Alam MA, Islam MM, Mondal D, Hossain MI, Ahmed AMS, Choudhury N, Raihan MJ, Haque R, and Ahmed T. Effect of micronutrient powder supplementation for two and four months on hemoglobin level of children 6–23 months old in a slum in Dhaka: a community based observational study. BMC Nutrition 2016, DOI: 10.1186/s40795-016-0061-y. URL: http://www.biomedcentral.com/2055-0928/2/21
• Nelson MI, Mahfuz M, Chhabra P, Haque R, Seidman JC, Hossain I, McGrath M, Ahmed AMS, Knobler S, Vinjé J, Ahmed T. Genetic diversity of noroviruses circulating in a pediatric cohort in Bangladesh. J Infect Dis. 2018 Jul 23. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiy454. 
• Chen R, Kung V, Das S, Hossain MS, Hibberd MC, Guruge J, Mahfuz M, Begum KN, Rahman MM, Fahim SM, Gazi A, Haque R, Sarker SA, Mazumder RN, Luccia B, Ahsan K, Kennedy E, Santiago-Borges J, Rodionov D, Leyn S, Osterman A, Barratt MJ, Ahmed T, Gordon JI. Linking the duodenal microbiota to stunting in a cohort of undernourished Bangladeshi children with enteropathy. N Engl J Med. 2020 Jul 23;383(4):321-333. 
• Chen RY, Mostafa I, Hibberd MC, Das S, Mahfuz M, Naila NN, Islam MM, Huq S, Alam MA, Zaman MU, Raman AS, Webber D, Zhou C, Sundaresan V, Ahsan K, Meier MF, Barratt MJ, Ahmed T, Gordon JI. A Microbiota-Directed Food Intervention for Undernourished Children. N Engl J Med. 2021 Apr 22;384(16):1517-1528. 
• Chen RY, Mostafa I, Hibberd MC, Das S, Lynn HM, Webber DM, Mahfuz M, Barratt MJ, Ahmed T, Gordon JI. Melding microbiome and nutritional science with early child development. Nat Med. 2021 Sep;27(9):1503-1506. doi: 10.1038/s41591-021-01451-1. PMID: 34326550.
• Raman AS, Gehrig JL, Venkatesh S, Chang HW, Hibberd MC, Subramanian S, Kang G, Bessong PO, Lima AAM, Kosek MN, Petri WA Jr, Rodionov DA, Arzamasov AA, Leyn SA, Osterman AL, Huq S, Mostafa I, Islam M, Mahfuz M, Haque R, Ahmed T, Barratt MJ, Gordon JI. A sparse covarying unit that describes healthy and impaired human gut microbiota development. Science. 2019 Jul 12;365(6449). pii: eaau4735..
• Gehrig JL, Venkatesh S, Chang HW, Hibberd MC, Kung VL, Cheng J, Chen RY, Subramanian S, Cowardin CA, Meier MF, O'Donnell D, Talcott M, Spears LD, Semenkovich CF, Henrissat B, Giannone RJ, Hettich RL, Ilkayeva O, Muehlbauer M, Newgard CB, Sawyer C, Head RD, Rodionov DA, Arzamasov AA, Leyn SA, Osterman AL, Hossain MI, Islam M, Choudhury N, Sarker SA, Huq S, Mahmud I, Mostafa I, Mahfuz M, Barratt MJ, Ahmed T, Gordon JI. Effects of microbiota-directed foods in gnotobiotic animals and undernourished children. Science. 2019 Jul 12;365(6449). pii: eaau4732. doi: 10.1126/science.aau4732.