Bio

Ondulla T. Toomer is a North Carolina native and graduated from North Carolina State University with a Ph.D. in nutrition with a minor in biotechnology in 2005. 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 of Agriculture (USDA)/Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Beltsville, MD, with a research emphasis on differential gene expression in the reproductive tissues of turkey hens. Subsequently, Toomer worked over seven years with the United States Food and Drug Administration-Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition as a research biologist with a research emphasis on 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, Toomer works with the USDA-ARS as a research chemist in the Market Quality and Handling Research unit and as an adjunct professor in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences at NC State University.