Dr. Robert Bandsma, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto. He is a Pediatric Gastroenterologist and Nutritionist at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Toronto, Canada and a clinician-scientist at the SickKids Research Institute. He has cross-appointments at the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences and the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands.

His international research program aims to improve the survival and long-term outcome of ill malnourished children. The research focuses on elucidating the pathways underlying the vulnerability of malnourished children and develop novel interventions. He established a clinical research unit, at the University of Malawi, that has successfully completed numerous observational cohort studies and clinical trials. His group specializes in using innovative machine learning approaches for analyzing complex multi-level datasets. He leads a laboratory group at SickKids that uses pre-clinical model systems to deepen the understanding of molecular pathways affected in malnutrition.

Dr. Bandsma has published more than a125 scientific manuscripts to date and he is a member of the World Health Organization Guideline Development Group for the prevention, diagnosis and management of wasting in children. His work is supported by the Canadian Institute for Health Research and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation among others.