Hendersonville, North Carolina, United States
Joe-Ann McCoy, PhD, is a curator of native and medicinal plants. Her role is to establish and conserve diverse research collections of native and medicinal plant germplasm representing a broad range of diversity and to curate those collections through the long-term storage of seed and associated endophytic fungi in addition to analysis of plant and microbial extracts. Over 1,000 accessions of endophytic fungi have been isolated and identified from target species, stored long-term, and screened for bioactivity which was compared to parent plant bioactivity. Joe-Ann completed her doctoral research in Plant Physiology from Clemson University which focused on the development of seed, rhizome, and in vitro propagation protocols for Actaea racemosa L. (black cohosh) and HPLC analysis of triterpene glycosides. Her M.S. in Plant Pathology was focused on developing in vitro propagation protocols for Hypericum perforatum L. (St. John’s Wort) and HPLC analysis of Hypericins. Prior to NCAGR she served as medicinal plant curator for the USDA NCRPIS and the NIH ISU Center for Research on Dietary Supplements in Ames, IA. She has worked with a wide variety of native and medicinal plant research including collection, conservation, cell culture, bioassays, endophytes, pathogens, propagation, and analytical chemistry for the past 18 years.