Experts Guide

Oxner's research focuses on allergy, immunology and infectious disease. She has designed and implemented quality improvement projects at USF and globally in Africa for malaria, measles, HIV, TB, burns and malnutrition. She can also discuss measuring the impact of working with under-served patients to create more resourceful and empathetic doctors after training.

Hoffman's work focuses on molecular and cellular immunology, immune tolerance, gene therapy and multiple sclerosis.

Somboonwit is an expert in allergy, immunology and infectious disease. Her recent research focuses on comorbidities among individuals living with HIV, hepatitis among HIV-positive individuals and blood cell deficiencies as a consequence of severe COVID-19 infection.

Bréchot is an internationally recognized expert in virology, allergy, immunology and infectious disease. He can discuss global health topics, microbiomes and cellular and molecular biology.

Tabatabaian is an expert in allergy, immunology and infectious disease and can discuss asthma and other heat-related allergies as well as respiratory responses from algal blooms such as red tide.

Martin is widely regarded as a pioneer and global leader in ecological immunology and disease ecology. His current work centers on the house sparrow, one of the world’s most widespread bird species. Collaborating with international colleagues, Martin studies the endocrine and immune systems of both native and introduced sparrow populations. His team also examines how stress shapes the spread of zoonotic diseases like West Nile virus and how body size influences immune system structure in mammals. His latest grant supports research into how natural environmental changes affect the immune systems of small mammals that carry the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease.

Teng is an expert in virology and viral replication; allergy, immunology and infectious disease and biomedical engineering and nano medicine. He studies the role of host-virus interactions in viral pathogenesis.

Oehler's research focuses on allergy, immunology and infectious disease. Specific areas of interest include the role of social media and electronic devices in medicine, including infectious diseases; infections caused or spread by domestic pets, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) and mycobacteria; and tuberculosis.

Prescott was a neonatal intensive care bedside nurse and educator for fifteen years before becoming a board-certified Neonatal Nurse Practitioner. While working at INOVA Children’s Hospital, a top 40 ranked, 108 bed, Level IV neonatal intensive care unit, she attended the University of Virginia to obtain her PhD, and then worked at the National Institutes of Health in the Laboratory of Integrative Immunology as a research fellow and then a postdoctoral trainee studying the microbiome and immune response to immunotherapy in the setting of advanced melanoma.

Jinwal's research focuses on allergy, immunology and infectious disease; biomedical engineering and nanomedicine, neurodegenerative disease; neuroscience; drug discovery; and molecular chaperone proteins.