About

Ilona Jaspers, PhD is a Professor in the Division of Pulmonology. She is a pediatric microbiologist and immunologist with expertise on exposure to environmental oxidants and its impact on human immune responses.

Dr. Jaspers has established several human in vitro and clinical in vivo models to determine the adverse health effects induced by pollutant exposures. Dr. Jaspers collaborates extensively with investigators from UNC and the U.S. Environmental Protection agency to conduct translational studies related to air pollution health effects.

Her research includes:

• Modifiers of disease and environmental disease, such as exposure to diesel exhaust, ozone as well as tobacco smoke through the use of e-cigarettes.
• Basic and translational research models to focus on the mechanisms by which factors such as nutrition, pre-existing diseases and co-exposures to environmental agents can modify mucosa host defense responses.
• Development of experimental models to examine whether and how exposure to environmental pollutants alters immune responses, using human organotypic epithelial cell culture models in vitro, mouse lung in vivo and humans in vivo.