Helen J. Cooper

Helen Jill Cooper is a British chemist who is Professor of mass spectrometry at the University of Birmingham. She serves as Deputy Head of the School of Chemistry and holds an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Established Career Fellowship. Her research considers the development of native ambient mass spectrometry to enable direct analysis of intact proteins and protein assemblies from tissue.

Helen Jill Cooper
Alma materUniversity of Warwick
Scientific career
InstitutionsNational High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Florida State University
University of Birmingham
ThesisMass spectrometric studies of collisional activation and target capture. (1995)
WebsiteCooper Mass Spectrometry Group

Early life and education

Cooper has said she became interested in science at the age of nine, when she learned that Isaac Newton had discovered gravity.[1] Cooper attended King Edward VI Community College in Totnes.[2] She completed undergraduate and graduate degrees in chemistry at the University of Warwick. After earning a doctorate, she was appointed an Experimental Officer in Fourier transform mass spectrometry. In 2000, she moved to the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, which is located in Florida State University and continued her research in Fourier transform mass spectrometry.[3]

Research and career

In 2003, Cooper returned to the United Kingdom, where she was awarded a Wellcome Trust University Fellowship and joined the University of Birmingham.[3][4][5] Cooper develops native ambient and ion mobility mass spectrometry to study protein structure a directly in the physiological environment (for example, in tissue). The large-scale study of proteins is known as proteomics. Cooper has shown that ambient mass spectrometry of proteins can provide the molecular-level sensitivity required to understand the processes that underpin disease, and can be used to inform the design of new pharmaceuticals. She has combined mass spectrometry with electron-capture dissociation and collision-induced dissociation.[6]

Cooper has studied the fragmentation processes and post-translational modifications of peptides. Such investigations are crucial to understand a range of biological processes.[6]

Awards and honours
  • 2007 Elected to the British Mass Spectrometry Society[4]
  • 2018 Elected Chair of the Management Advisory Panel for the EPSRC National Mass Spectrometry Facility
  • 2022 Royal Society of Chemistry Analytical Division Theophilus Redwood Award[7]

References
  1. "Pushing the Boundaries of Mass Spectrometry Design and Use". Accelerating Proteomics. 2013-06-12. Retrieved 2022-06-08.
  2. "HOME 6TH FORM ALUMNI PROFESSOR HELEN J. COOPER".
  3. "Professor Helen Cooper - 2022 Analytical Division open Award: Theophilus Redwood Award winner". Royal Society of Chemistry. Retrieved 2022-06-08.
  4. "Professor Helen Cooper". Rosalind Franklin Institute. Retrieved 2022-06-08.
  5. "Extract from IMMS: The Next Five Years - Prof. Helen J. Cooper". www.owlstonemedical.com. Retrieved 2022-06-08.
  6. "Professor Helen Cooper". University of Birmingham. Retrieved 2022-06-08.
  7. "Our 2022 Research & Innovation Prize winners". Royal Society of Chemistry. Retrieved 2022-06-08.
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