Ondulla Toomer

Bio

Ondulla T. Toomer is a North Carolina native and graduated from NC State University with a Ph.D. in Nutrition Sciences 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 in differential gene expression in the reproductive tissues of turkey hens. Subsequently, Dr. Toomer was employed for over 7 years with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration – Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition as a Senior Staff Fellow-Research Biologist with research emphasis on the development and prevention of pediatric food allergies and identifying immunological biomarkers of food allergies using in vitro and in vivo models, and 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 Adjunct Faculty in the Prestage Department of Poultry Science and Assistant Professor in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences, NC State University 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.