Journal of Food, Nutrition and Population Health Open Access

Ondulla Tyvette Toomer

Biography

Ondulla T. Toomer is a North Carolina native and currently resides in Apex, NC. In 2005, she graduated from North Carolina State University with a Ph.D. in Nutrition with a minor in Biotechnology. In July 2005, Toomer began a postdoctoral fellowship in the Mucosal Immunology Laboratory of Pediatric Gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School under the supervision of Dr. Allan Walker and Dr. Hai Ning Shi studying the immunological health benefits of probiotics in neonatal development using a murine model. Toomer completed a second postdoctoral training program at the United States Department Agriculture (USDA)/Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Beltsville MD with a research emphasis in differential gene expression in the reproductive tissues of turkey hens. Subsequently, Dr. Toomer was employed for over 7 years with the United States Food and Drug Administration-Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition as a Research Biologist with a research emphasis in the development and prevention of Pediatric Food Allergy and the identifying immunological biomarkers of food allergy using in vitro and in vivo models, and studying the effects of commensal microorganisms and/or probiotics on early (pre-weaning) immunological development. Currently, Dr. Toomer is employed with the USDA-ARS as a Research Chemist in the Market Quality and Handling Research Unit and as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC with a research emphasis on identifying the chemical constituents of raw and processed peanuts that are of nutritional benefit to the American consumer, and to investigate the usefulness of peanuts and/or peanut-by-products as alternative feed ingredients within the animal feed industry.

Research Interest

Her research interest in Nutrition, Physiology, Immunology, and Food Microbiology.