Nikhil Pai,  MD, CNSC, NASPGHAN-F, FAAP, FRCPC
McMaster University (McMaster Children’s Hospital)

Dr. Nikhil Pai has led a leading-edge nutrition-focused research program that has attracted competitive national funding and displayed the vision of how collaboration with multi-disciplinary investigators across the university and Canada serves to advance nutrition research with immediate application to advancing patient care. His innovative and robust research program focuses on the role of nutritional science and microbial therapeutics in pediatric gastroenterology, including using fecal microbiota transplant in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Dr. Pai is principal investigator of three multicenter randomized-controlled trials: the PediFeTCh Trial (Pediatric Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Ulcerative Colitis), PediCRaFT Trial (Pediatric Crohn's Disease Fecal Microbiota Transplant), and FIND Trial (Fructo-oligosaccharide Supplementation in Pediatric Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease). The PediFeTCh Trial is the first randomized-controlled trial (RCT) of fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) in pediatric ulcerative colitis (Gastroenterology 2021. 

Dr. Pai’s penchant for collaborative research led to partnership with the Department of Chemistry at McMaster (Dr. Philip Britz-McKibbin) to develop a novel urinary assay to monitor adherence to exclusive enteral nutrition therapy in children with Crohn’s disease. This point-of-care urine-based assay has resulted in the development of a Canadian/U.S. patent, and he was recognized as a second-place finalist at the NASPGHAN “Baby Shark” Innovation Competition in October 2022. In recognition of his research, Dr. Pai was recently awarded the prestigious American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition’s (ASPEN) Stanley J. Dudrick Research Scholar Award.

Dr. Pai is a physician-scientist who is strongly committed to bridging the gap between research and evidence-based clinical practice (the “bench to bedside” model). Direct clinical applications of Dr. Pai’s research cover identification of new nutritional therapies for several gastrointestinal diseases in children including inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). He has generously shared his nutrition research and clinical expertise by establishing the Complex Nutrition Clinic where he sees patients referred from the Pediatric Complex Care Program, the Neonatal Follow-up Clinic, Endocrinology, Developmental Pediatrics, Autism Clinics, as well as the Metabolic division. As founding co-Chair of the Pediatric Nutrition Advisory Committee (PNAC) in 2018, a position he shares with a registered pediatric dietitian as co-Chair, he has put clinical pediatric nutrition on the map in the Hamilton Health Sciences hospitals. Dr. Pai is also the pioneer of fecal transplants in children and working with collaborators from the Department of Medicine at McMaster developed the first Pediatric FMT “stool bank” in Canada.

Dr. Pai has an admiral dedication to the enhancement of infrastructure to support better collaborative nutritional research across Canada and has served in major hospital and Canada-wide nutrition leadership roles. Currently, he is co-Chair of the Canadian Children’s Intestinal Rehabilitation Network, a program that he co-founded in 2021 to improve collaboration between pediatric intestinal failure providers across the country. In national outreach work related to pediatric nutrition Dr. Pai was an invited member on the CNS Canadian Malnutrition Task Force (CMTF) Pediatric Working Group and is a site-lead on the planned Pediatric Integrated Nutrition Pathway for Acute Care (P-INPAC) Pilot Implementation Study, a multicenter pilot study that will assess feasibility of implementing a new, nationally recognized pediatric inpatient malnutrition tool. Additionally, Dr. Pai was invited by Health Canada to join the Canadian Infant Formula Shortage Communications Working Group, to which he still contributes his expertise as well as spearheading the initiative to address the issue of formula shortages at MCH.