Dr. M'Koma is Research Assistant Professor of Surgery, Colon and Rectal Surgery in the Division of General Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. M'Koma received medical training initiated and completed his M.D. degree at Kharkov Medical Institute in Kharkov, Ukraine in 1984. Dr. M'Koma did his postgraduate and surgical residency program at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. He was Board Certified in General Surgery (The Swedish Board of Health and Welfare). Dr. M'Koma pursued a Licentiate of Medical Science degree (1999) and a Ph.D (2001) in Surgery from the Karolinska Institute.
Dr. M'Koma came to the United States to further pursue academic endeavors. He was able to work at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota as a Research Trainee where he interacted with some of the leaders in the field of Colon and Rectal Surgery. The interactions with investigators at the Mayo clinic provided additional insight into the development of his research career. He interacted with some of the leading physicians in the areas of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and received guidance and advice on the research activities that had the potential to significantly impact the understanding and treatment of the disease. His research efforts during this time related to an in depth study of the scientific and clinical background of inflammatory colitis and it maladies.
Dr. M'Koma research interest is focused on the pathophysiology of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) more focused on diagnostic methodologies and surgical management of ulcerative colitis (UC) and familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). The research is gravitated to gastrointestinal disease, specifically relating to the restorative physiology of intestinal continuity after operations for IBD, specifically, restorative proctocolectomy (RPC). The research efforts are directed towards developing strategic methodologies based on MALDI-mass spectrometry, proteomics and recombinant single-chain antibody to identify peptides that can provide discriminatory diagnostic tool for inflammatory colitis.