Daniel Roth

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Other Academic and Clinical Appointments

Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics, University of Toronto (primary appointment)

Associate Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

Associate Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto

Staff Physician, Division of Paediatric Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children

At a Glance

• Dr. Roth’s research over the past 10 years has largely focused on the role of vitamin D in pregnancy, lactation and early childhood, with a particular emphasis on settings with a high prevalence of prenatal vitamin D deficiency (i.e., South Asia).
• He has led several studies that have documented the low vitamin D status and response to supplementation among pregnant women in Dhaka, and the effects of vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy on maternal and child health outcomes.
• Dr. Roth is currently the principal investigator of a large multi-component study of infant sepsis and the microbiome in Bangladesh.

About Dr. Daniel Roth

Daniel Roth received his MD in 2002 from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, British Columbia), completed a paediatric residency (2006) and M.Sc. (2006) at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta), and has a PhD (2011) in global public health and human nutrition from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (Baltimore, Maryland). Dr. Roth is a clinician-scientist and associate professor in the Division of Paediatric Medicine, Department of Paediatrics at The Hospital for Sick Children and University of Toronto. He is a Senior Scientist at the SickKids Research Institute and a core faculty member of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health.  His research focuses on maternal and child nutrition, growth and infectious diseases in low-income settings. He is currently leading an international collaborative study of the early neonatal microbiome and sepsis in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Research Synopsis

Dr. Roth's research over the past 10 years has largely focused on the role of vitamin D in pregnancy, lactation and early childhood, with a particular emphasis on settings with a high prevalence of prenatal vitamin D deficiency (i.e., South Asia). He has led several studies that have documented the low vitamin D status and response to supplementation among pregnant women in Dhaka, and the effects of vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy on maternal and child health outcomes. Currently, Dr. Roth is the principal investigator of a large multi-component study of infant sepsis and the microbiome in Bangladesh, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Recent Awards and Distinctions (Selected)

 Junior Faculty Researcher Award, Department of Paediatrics, University of Toronto (2019)

Fitzgerald Academy Health Science Research Teaching Award, Fitzgerald Academy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto (2019)

Samuel J. Fomon Young Physician Awarded, American Society of Nutrition (2016)

Recent Publications

1. Arvay ML, Shang N, Qazi SA, Darmstadt GL, Islam MS, Roth DE, Liu A, Connor NE, Hossain B, Sadeq-Ur Rahman Q, El Arifeen S, Mullany LC, Zaidi AKM, Bhutta ZA, Soofi SB, Shafiq Y, Baqui AH, Mitra DK, Panigrahi P, Panigrahi K, Bose A, Isaac R, Westreich D, Meshnick SR, Saha SK, Schrag SJ. Infectious aetiologies of neonatal illness in south Asia classified using WHO definitions: a primary analysis of the ANISA study. Lancet Glob Health. 2022 Sep;10(9):e1289-e1297. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(22)00244-3. PMID: 35961352; PMCID: PMC9380253.
2. Perumal N, Ohuma EO, Prentice AM, Shah PS, Al Mahmud A, Moore SE, Roth DE. Implications for quantifying early life growth trajectories of term-born infants using INTERGROWTH-21st newborn size standards at birth in conjunction with World Health Organization child growth standards in the postnatal period. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. 2022 May 16. doi: 10.1111/ppe.12880. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35570836.
3. Norris SA, Draper CE, Prioreschi A, Smuts CM, Ware LJ, Dennis C, Awadalla P, Bassani D, Bhutta Z, Briollais L, Cameron DW, Chirwa T, Fallon B, Gray CM, Hamilton J, Jamison J, Jaspan H, Jenkins J, Kahn K, Kengne AP, Lambert EV, Levitt N, Martin MC, Ramsay M, Roth D, Scherer S, Sellen D, Slemming W, Sloboda D, Szyf M, Tollman S, Tomlinson M, Tough S, Matthews SG, Richter L, Lye S. Building knowledge, optimising physical and mental health and setting up healthier life trajectories in South African women (Bukhali): a preconception randomised control trial part of the Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative (HeLTI). BMJ Open. 2022 Apr 21;12(4):e059914. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059914. PMID: 35450913; PMCID: PMC9024255.
4. Robles M, Namdarian N, Otto J, Wassiljew E, Navab N, Falter-Wagner C, Roth D. A Virtual Reality Based System for the Screening and Classification of Autism. IEEE Trans Vis Comput Graph. 2022 Feb 16;PP. doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2022.3150489. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35171773.
5. Mehringer W, Wirth M, Roth D, Michelson G, Eskofier BM. Stereopsis Only: Validation of a Monocular Depth Cues Reduced Gamified Virtual Reality with Reaction Time Measurement. IEEE Trans Vis Comput Graph. 2022 Feb 15;PP. doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2022.3150486. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35167462.
6. Taghivand M, Pell LG, Rahman MZ, Mahmud AA, Ohuma EO, Pullangyeum EM, Ahmed T, Hamer DH, Zlotkin SH, Gubbay JB, Morris SK, Roth DE. Effect of maternal vitamin D supplementation on nasal pneumococcal acquisition, carriage dynamics and carriage density in infants in Dhaka, Bangladesh. BMC Infect Dis. 2022 Jan 13;22(1):52. doi: 10.1186/s12879-022-07032-y. PMID: 35026987; PMCID: PMC8759256.
7. Gomes F, Ashorn P, Askari S, Belizan JM, Boy E, Cormick G, Dickin KL, Driller-Colangelo AR, Fawzi W, Hofmeyr GJ, Humphrey J, Khadilkar A, Mandlik R, Neufeld LM, Palacios C, Roth DE, Shlisky J, Sudfeld CR, Weaver C, Bourassa MW. Calcium supplementation for the prevention of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy: current evidence and programmatic considerations. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2022 Jan 8. doi: 10.1111/nyas.14733. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35000200.
8. Pell LG, Ohuma EO, Yonemitsu C, Loutet MG, Ahmed T, Mahmud AA, Azad MB, Bode L, Roth DE. The Human-Milk Oligosaccharide Profile of Lactating Women in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Curr Dev Nutr. 2021 Nov 13;5(12):nzab137. doi: 10.1093/cdn/nzab137. PMID: 34993388; PMCID: PMC8728024.
9. O' Callaghan KM, Shanta SS, Fariha F, Harrington J, Mahmud AA, Emdin AL, Gernand AD, Ahmed T, Abrams SA, Moore DR, Roth DE. Effect of maternal prenatal and postpartum vitamin D supplementation on offspring bone mass and muscle strength in early childhood: follow-up of a randomized controlled trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2021 Nov 27:nqab396. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqab396. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34849536.
10. Emdin A, Strzelecki M, Seto W, Feinstein J, Bogler O, Cohen E, Roth DE. Medications Reconciled at Discharge Versus Admission Among Inpatients at a Children's Hospital. Hosp Pediatr. 2021 Dec 1:hpeds.2021-006080. doi: 10.1542/hpeds.2021-006080. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34807980.

In the News

Should you take a vitamin D supplement? Discover. April 1, 2021.

Current Lab Members (within the Department of Nutritional Sciences)

Afreen Khan - PhD student

Jennifer Onuora - PhD student

Maimuna Gias - MSc student

Maria-Elena Lautatzis - MSc student

Kelly Watson - MSc student