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Amosy E. M'Koma is a tenured full professor of Surgery, Surgical Sciences, Pathology, and Cancer at Meharry Medical College and adjunct Associate professor of Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Division of General Surgery and Surgical Sciences, Section of Colon and Rectal Surgery. Dr. M'Koma's laboratory specializes in predominantly colonic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), i.e., ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s colitis (CC), indeterminate colitis (IC) when the established criteria for UC and CC are non-definitive and IBD-associated colorectal cancer (CRC) research. His particular keen specialty is on molecular diagnostic methodologies and surgical management of IBD, specifically as they relate to the physiology of pouch surgery, restorative proctocolectomy, and ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (RPC-IPAA). For years he has been investigating the physiology and metabolic biochemical variable events following surgical treatment of the UC and familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), the RPC-IPAA. The successful outcomes of pouch surgery and convalescence depend on the correct diagnosis. M'Koma's objective is to develop a diagnostic ‘Gold Standard” bioassay tool that is Affordable, Sensitive, Specific, User-friendly, Robust and Rapid, Equipment-free, and Deliverable (ASSURED) to the end-user during the first clinic endoscopy biopsy procedural visit without delay. An accurate diagnosis before initiating medical therapy or performing colectomy and construction of RPC-IPAA is of paramount importance in terms of evidenced personalized medical therapy, surgical intervention, and prognosis, as well as delineation of IBD by non-invasive, easier, affordable, accurate, and faster screening. We anticipate these studies will provide hitherto unclear diagnostic sites that may be exploited for therapeutic purposes. We use patient-known clinical data to correlate with their endoscopy biopsy data. This will be the true test of diagnostic utility. The project performs proteomic analyses from authentic UC and CC to develop an ASSURED signature that discriminates between UC and CC patients and also predicts the outcome of IC patients for their eventual progress to either authentic UC or CC. Based on our current data, we have identified several biomarkers of interest that may delineate the IBD subtypes in endoscopic biopsies. In the future, we plan to explore the use of one or more of these biosignatures as a serum biomarker if the signature(s) uncovered are (are) secretory and transposable. In addition, over the past years, M'Koma has established a translational research program in biomarker discoveries focused on the Early Detection of IBD-associated colorectal malignancy in collaboration with NIH-funded Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center SPORE in Gastrointestinal Cancer (VICC GI SPORE).
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