"[The Basic Sciences Division] puts creative people together and give them the resources and liberty to follow their instincts. I marvel at the great work they do."
— Dr. Jonathan Cooper
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Cooper
Jonathan Cooper, PhD
- Professor and Director Emeritus, Basic Sciences Division, Fred Hutch
Background
Dr. Jon Cooper studies the networks of proteins that cells use to communicate with each other — networks that also play a critical role in the transformation of healthy cells into cancer cells. In particular, his team studies how some proteins undergo chemical changes that regulate how healthy and cancerous cells divide, become more specialized and migrate in the body. His lab has discovered several of the key steps that cells use to signal when and how to grow, providing the field with important clues about how this signaling process goes awry in cancer cells. This information could help researchers fix corrupted signaling pathways that lead to cancer and other diseases. Dr. Cooper directed the Basic Sciences Division at Fred Hutch from 2009 to 2018.
Education
PhD, University of Warwick
BA, University of Cambridge