has many years of experience in medical research and has conducted extensive studies on infectious microbial agents and the antibiotic treatment for arthritis patients. As part of a scientific research team investigating the cause of rheumatoid arthritis, she worked with the late Dr. Thomas McPherson Brown - pioneer of the antibiotic treatment – as Director of the Arthritis Institute in Arlington, Virginia.
Dr. Coker-Vann received her Ph.D. in Microbiology from Purdue University and began her career at the Laboratory of Clinical Investigation , National Institutes of Health where she studied diseases caused by the herpes virus and the Epstein-Barr virus (the cause of infectious mononucleosis). As a visiting associate at the Laboratory of Central Nervous System Studies at the N.I.H., she was the recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation award for the study of human neuro-cysticerosis and also conducted studies on human growth hormone and slow viral infections in man. Prior to conducting the research on mycoplasmas at the Food and Drug Administration in Bethesda, Maryland, Dr. Coker-Vann taught at the University of Ife in Nigeria and spent some time as a researcher on coliform bacteria at the prestigious Max Planck Institut in Freiburg, Germany.
Dr. Coker-Vann is currently director of the Arthritis Research Center in Maryland and works with scientists and physicians who have extensive knowledge in this field.