Jonathon Maguire

Professor,
Paediatrics and Nutritional Sciences

Optimizing the health of Canadian children is the motivation behind Jonathon Maguire’s research. His work focusses on the prevention of child health problems through clinical trials and the creation of tools for evidence-informed child health preventive practice.

Together with his University of Toronto colleagues Patricia Parkin and Catherine Birken, Maguire leads the Applied Research Group for Kids (TARGet Kids!) coordinated by the Hospital for Sick Children and St. Michael’s Hospital. It is the largest primary care research network for children in Canada that links early life exposures to health problems including obesity, micronutrient deficiencies and developmental problems. By connecting child health researchers, paediatricians and family doctors, children and their parents TARGet Kids! helps to promote research that creates solutions to some of today’s biggest health concerns.

“Thanks to the dedication of children, health care providers and parents, TARGet Kids! generates a wealth of data on early nutrition as it relates to growth and development. This information will be valuable as the Lawson Centre pushes nutrition research forward.”

He oversees two TARGet Kids! research projects: HOLD IT, which assesses health outcomes in children with low vitamin D levels, and DO IT!, which is a randomized trial to determine whether high dose vitamin D supplementation during early childhood can prevent wintertime colds and flu.

“Children are our country’s future. It is important that we understand the origins of childhood health problems so that we can prevent them. “

Maguire is excited about the opportunity to work with colleagues in the Lawson Centre. “Research in the 21st century needs to be multidisciplinary,” he says. “The knowledge advances in health and health care are likely to come at the interfaces between disciplines. Broad collaboration is critically important for the Lawson Centre to successfully fulfill its mandate.”

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