Rate My Professor Marsha-Lyn McKoy

Dr. Marsha-Lyn McKoy serves as a Lecturer and Programme Coordinator for the Bachelor of Basic Medical Sciences (BBMedSc) programme within the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Medicine at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus. Holding a PhD, she is affiliated with the Pharmacology Section of the Department of Basic Medical Sciences, where her career focuses on pharmacology research and teaching. Her academic interests center on the therapeutic effects of natural products, particularly Jamaican plants, and their impacts on metabolic and physiological processes.

McKoy's key research contributions include investigations into the cholesterol-lowering effects of Jamaican bitter yam (Dioscorea polygonoides) and diosgenin, published as "Effects of Jamaican Bitter Yam (Dioscorea polygonoides) and Diosgenin on Blood and Fecal Cholesterol in Rats" in the Journal of Medicinal Food (2014), and "Renal and Hepatic Function in Hypercholesterolemic Rats Fed Jamaican Bitter Yam (Dioscorea polygonoides)" in the Journal of Dietary Supplements (2014). She has also examined the blood glucose-lowering potential of Jamaican Momordica charantia in "Investigation of the Blood Glucose Lowering Potential of the Jamaican Momordica charantia (Cerasee) Fruit in Sprague-Dawley Rats" (West Indian Medical Journal, 2015). In ocular pharmacology, notable works are "Pharmacology of Serotonin Receptors Causing Contraction of Isolated Bovine Posterior Ciliary Arteries: Role in Ocular Blood Flow" and "Serotonin-2B/2C Receptors Mediate Bovine Ciliary Muscle Contraction: Role in Intraocular Pressure Regulation" (Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 2018). Additional publications cover the in vitro effect of dibenzyl trisulfide on the oxygen-haemoglobin dissociation curve (Journal of Basic and Clinical Physiology and Pharmacology, 2020), effects of antimalarial drugs on blood viscosity and elasticity (Indian Journal of Medical Research, 2016), and hydrogen sulfide's action on porcine irides (Experimental Eye Research, 2008). She contributed chapters "Ocular Autonomic Physiology and Pharmacology" and "Ocular Biochemistry" to the Handbook of Basic and Clinical Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics (Elsevier, 2022). McKoy teaches pharmacology courses including Drug Development, Anti-Inflammatory/Analgesic Drugs, Reproductive Pharmacology, and Research Projects. Her work has garnered over 219 citations.