Bio
Dr. Leonard L. Williams is the Director and Professor of Food Safety and Microbiology at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Center for Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies (CEPHT) located on the North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC) in Kannapolis, North Carolina. He has served as a mentor and adviser to over 50 graduate, 13 undergraduate and high school research students and supervised five post-doctoral scholars.
Research Interests
• Incidence of food-borne pathogens in fruits and vegetables using molecular, immunological and epidemiological approaches, with the goal of identifying new strains and their ability to develop resistance to both natural and synthetically derived agents. • Novel nano-biomaterials for inactivation of Norovirus and other food borne pathogens. • Methods to determine antimicrobial resistance profiles of multiple microorganisms from food, clinical, and veterinary sources tested against both natural and synthetic agents. • Alleviate several peanut allergens commonly found in varieties of peanuts and peanut-based products. • Genetic diversity of gut microbiota and its role on antimicrobial resistance. Future Desired Research Area(s) • Disease progression and cognitive skills as it relates to microbial infections • Neuroprotective effects of phytochemicals on traumatic brain injuries and epilepsy • Development of natural supplements for combating microbial infections • Metabolomics approaches to fermentation of bio-solids and value-added products • Product development (Nutraceuticals, supplements, herbals) • Entrepreneur and Intellectual property development
Recent Publications
- Lini Huo, Xiaochen Liu, Yogini Jaiswal, Hao Xu, Rui Chen, Rumei Lu, Yaqin Nong, Leonard Williams, Yan Liang, Zhiruo Jia (2023). (Design and Synthesis of Acridine-Triazole and Acridine-Thiadiazole Derivatives and Their Inhibitory Effect against Cancer Cells). (1) 24, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES.
- Xiao-Yan Ning, Mei-Fang Huang, Jian-Fang Feng, Yogini Jaiswal, Cheng-Sheng Lu, Xu Feng, Chen-Yan Liang, Leonard Williams, Jian-Hua Wei, Liu-Ping Wang (2023). (Pentacyclic triterpenoids from Rubus pirifolius Smith and their chemotaxonomic significance). 110, BIOCHEMICAL SYSTEMATICS AND ECOLOGY.
- Blue, Candice E. C., Yasin Jababu, Ibrahim, Salam A. A., Minor, Radiah C. C., Williams, Leonard L. L., Adetunji, Adedeji O. O., Rizwana Ali, Young, Lea S. S., Fasina, Yewande O. O. (2023). (Spray-Dried Plasma Promotes Broiler Chick Growth by Enhancing Immune Surveillance). (9) 13, ANIMALS.
- Amani Babekir, Sayed Mostafa, Radiah Minor, Leonard Williams, Scott Harrison, Emmanuel Obeng-Gyasi (2022). (The Association of Toxoplasma gondii IgG and Liver Injury in US Adults). (12) 19, pp. 7515. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
- B Donovan, A Suarez-Trujillo, T Casey, U Aryal, D Conklin, Leonard Williams, Radiah Minor (2021). (Inclusion of Oat and Yeast Culture in Sow Gestational and Lactational Diets Alters Immune and Antimicrobial Associated Proteins in Milk.). (2) 11, Animals : an open access journal from MDPI.
- Amira Ayad, Leonard Williams, Deiaa El-Rab, Raphael Ayivi, Heather Colleran, Sulaiman Aljaloud, Salam Ibrahim (2020). (A review of the chemical composition, nutritional and health benefits of dates for their potential use in energy nutrition bars for athletes). In Yildiz, Fatih, (1) 6, pp. 1809309. Cogent Food \& Agriculture.
- Akbar Bahrami, Zahra Baboli, Keith Schimmel, Seid Jafari, Leonard Williams (2020). (Efficiency of novel processing technologies for the control of Listeria monocytogenes in food products). 96, pp. 61-78. Trends in Food Science & Technology.
