Susan S. Percival, PhD, is a professor of nutritional sciences in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Her educational background includes a master's of science degree from the University of California, Davis, and a PhD from the University of Texas, Austin. She did her postdoctoral research in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Texas A&M University. From 1978 to 1981, she was tenure track faculty at the University of Rhode Island prior to an educational leave to pursue her doctorate. In 2004, she took an 8-month sabbatical leave at the National Institutes of Health with the Nutritional Sciences Research Group at the National Cancer Institute. She currently teaches courses on current issues in dietary supplements, research planning, and nutrition and immunity. Her current research deals with how dietary components influence immunity. Experimental models in cell culture, mice, and in humans reveal that certain dietary components including bioactive compounds from fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices, red wine, and green tea affect specific branches of immunity. These plant bioactive food components have benefits not only with their protective antioxidant capacity, but also through their ability to affect intracellular signaling pathways and prime immune cells to activate faster and to a greater extent when stimulated to do so.
Funding acknowledgements: University of Florida Agriculture Experiment Station, IFAS.
The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.
Correspondence: Susan S. Percival, PhD, Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Florida, PO Box 110370, Gainesville, FL 32611 ([email protected]).
