About

Dr. Hernandez is a physician scientist specializing in the field of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.

Dr. Hernandez’s research interests include asthma and the development of novel therapeutics for difficult-to-control asthma in children and teenagers, including effective interventions that can target environmentally induced inflammation to prevent disease in susceptible populations.

Her research group has shown that people with allergic asthma have an exaggerated airway innate immune inflammatory response to ozone (O3) compared to people without asthma. They have also demonstrated that increased Body Mass Index is positively associated with increased airway and systemic inflammation after O3, regardless of asthma status. As a result of a lack of information of the specific biological pathways through which O3, the most ubiquitous of all air pollutants, exerts adverse health effects, there are currently no therapies for disease prevention. The current strategy to prevent inflammation after O3 exposure is to promote avoidance.

Her long-term research objectives include 1) Understanding how inhaled pollutants cause a spectrum of inflammatory responses (both respiratory and systemic) and consequent disease; 2) Identifying those at highest risk and 3) Designing focused, safe, and pragmatic interventions to mitigate these complications. Her lab has specifically focused on targeting neutrophilic airway inflammation, a shared characteristic of pollutant-induced inflammation, through IL-1 blockade with anakinra and through antioxidant interventions. In early phase clinical studies, they have successfully used these interventions to mitigate pollutant-induced inflammation in adult volunteers using controlled chamber exposure studies in collaboration with the US Environmental Protection Agency.

In her leadership role with the CRI, Dr. Hernandez directs the CRI – Pediatric Clinical Research Unit and spearheads community outreach and community-based research development.

• Her leadership focus for the CRI includes:
  • Developing, promoting, and overseeing the ºÚÁÏÍø PedsCRU
  • Building an expanding network of sites and community-based partners to enable us to bring pediatric research to the diverse communities where children live across North Carolina and beyond – ensuring all children and families have the opportunity to engage, inform, and be represented in the research that will affect them
  • Supporting partnership between researchers and community members to promote research, community engagement and dissemination of research results to the community
  • Coordinating with other career and professional development programs at ºÚÁÏÍø in partnership with other CRI leadership to strategically target opportunities for our early-stage investigators.