.jpg "Afreen Z. Khan, MHS photo")
PhD Candidate
University of Toronto, Canada
Afreen Zaman Khan is an enthusiast in the area of health sciences. She holds an academic background in Biochemistry with a Bachelor’s from North South University, Bangladesh and Master’s from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA. After graduation, she started working at the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins in a project called JiVitA that focuses on child and maternal nutrition in Northern Bangladesh. Afreen was also appointed to the faculty of Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) in the School of Life Sciences, where she also gained experience in public health research, through collaboration with institutions such as University of Warwick, UK, Johns Hopkins University, USA, McMaster University, Canada and, icddr,b and INFS, Bangladesh. Currently, Afreen is pursuing her PhD in Nutritional Sciences at University of Toronto under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Roth. With an interest in exploring gut health and the implications associated with gut microbiota composition, she is building her PhD thesis towards addressing the long-standing problem of iron deficiency in infection-prone settings, through the use of probiotics. Afreen believes that finding strategies to improve microbiota balance can often help overcome challenges associated with micronutrient deficiencies, through improved bioavailability and absorption.